splinter
Americannoun
-
a small, thin, sharp piece of wood, bone, or the like, split or broken off from the main body.
- Synonyms:
- sliver
verb (used with object)
-
to split or break into splinters.
-
to break off (something) in splinters.
-
to split or break (a larger group) into separate factions or independent groups.
-
Obsolete. to secure or support by a splint or splints, as a broken limb.
noun
-
a very small sharp piece of wood, glass, metal, etc, characteristically long and thin, broken off from a whole
-
a metal fragment, from the container of a shell, bomb, etc, thrown out during an explosion
verb
-
to reduce or be reduced to sharp fragments; shatter
-
to break or be broken off in small sharp fragments
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
splintersimple
-
splinterssimple
-
have splinteredperfect
-
has splinteredperfect
-
am splinteringprogressive
-
are splinteringprogressive
-
is splinteringprogressive
-
have been splinteringperfect progressive
-
has been splinteringperfect progressive
Past
-
splinteredsimple
-
had splinteredperfect
-
was splinteringprogressive
-
were splinteringprogressive
-
had been splinteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of splinter
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle Dutch or Middle Low German; cf. splint
Explanation
A splinter is a narrow, pointed sliver that breaks off something larger. If you walk barefoot on a wooden floor, dock, or boardwalk, you might get a splinter of wood in your foot. Ouch! We often use the word splinter to refer to tiny shards of wood that lodge under the skin, but a sliver of any hard material — stone, glass, bone, wood, metal — can be called a splinter. When something splinters, it breaks into individual bits. You can also use the word figuratively to describe something that separates in a violent or forceful way, like when a mainstream political party splinters into more or less extreme groups.
Vocabulary lists containing splinter
Unit 1: Telling Details
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"Mother to Son"
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"Mississippi Solo" by Eddy Harris
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That threat could be a pathogen inside the body or something as simple as a splinter.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
As the Beatles began to splinter, Spitz writes, the Stones sharpened their focus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
But regional cooperation doesn’t need to splinter the world entirely.
From Barron's ● Mar. 4, 2026
From hosting streaming events at the Three Sisters pub in the capital, a splinter group has formed and they now attend ice hockey games together.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2026
One crack might not be enough to bring a fortress’s defenses down, but it was enough to splinter into two cracks, and then three, and then four.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
The ocean scenery is fake; the wooden splinters are real.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
But as the middle-class splinters along generational lines, other political experts warn that many ordinary Angelenos feel increasingly shut out of L.A. politics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
I also wanted to understand if my treatment, which forced me to excavate painful childhood memories lodged beneath the surface, like splinters the skin had long healed over, could help others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
Most top directors can’t act to save their lives, which is why they tend to appear as themselves and stick out like splinters.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2025
As the winds grew in ferocity and speed, the grains of sand began to sting like bites of mosquitoes and then like splinters.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
When he climbed the heap of slurry, he saw splintered furniture and ruined papers, but one thing remained intact.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026
And like all of television, reality is facing splintered and waning audiences so the decibel level of that conversation-sparking is often dialed way up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2026
Whoever replaces Petro in August will confront a splintered Congress that will force any incoming administration to build alliances to pass laws.
From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026
Despite a concluding chapter that struggles to make these storylines converge, “Now I Surrender” remains frustratingly splintered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
The beam of the house had splintered as it fell.
From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff
Now this very coalition is splintering as his support spirals downward.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 2026
The estate of Wuthering Heights is foreboding and dark, with rocks splintering through the walls, while Linton’s Thrushcross Grange bears a Victorian aesthetic, containing the outside world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026
Individual investors kicked off 2026 by taking a page from the playbook of global central banks and stockpiling gold as a hedge against a splintering world order.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 10, 2026
“Even if there is some post-crackdown splintering, the nucleus of the regime now has even more incentive to stick together.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
There was a loud splintering of shafts as the horse careered onwards, trailing in its wake reins, tracers and shattered timber.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
