splinter
Americannoun
-
splinters
plural
-
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)
-
splinters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
splintered,
past participle, past
-
splintering
present participle
-
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:
The bloc of governors would have to splinter before a majority of Fed voters in favor of a hike could carry the day.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
While broadcast evening news and morning shows have suffered from viewer drop-offs as audiences splinter and get their information from a range of sources, the declines at CBS have been particularly steep.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
That threat could be a pathogen inside the body or something as simple as a splinter.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
The 21st Century saw dance music splinter into even more sub-genres, providing something for everyone to move to.
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
It was like that sudden chill in her bedroom had settled in right under her heart, lodged into her like an icy splinter.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
The ocean scenery is fake; the wooden splinters are real.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 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
"Fortunately, it was a small injury from plastic splinters from the right window."
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2025
As the film moves from Guatemala to Mexico and then to the United States, Nava slowly splinters the magical realism Rosa and Enrique had grown up with.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2025
A few splinters peeked out of my skin.
From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce
“Immediately noticeable were the sagging eaves, the multitude of leaks from the roof, the dried out, splintered mahogany and the battered exterior woodwork, which had suffered seven decades of winds from the Sound.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
The early ratings show the enduring power of live sporting events and their ability to draw mass audiences at a time when streaming video has splintered viewership .
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
Its army eventually withdrew and the Islamist militants left behind splintered and turned against each other.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
In the modern music industry, with listening splintered across various streaming services and social-media platforms, it’s hard to write any song, much less a protest song, that reaches a critical mass of listeners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
Frankie grabbed on to a splintered door frame and looked down at the ground that was still again.
From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau
These surge for tens of kilometers, splintering trees, igniting forests and burying the remnants beneath hot ash and pumice.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 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
Price’s thesis is simple, but unsettling: modern digital life — especially social media — is turbocharging our anxieties and splintering our attention spans, making what she calls “True Fun” feel increasingly elusive.
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2025
I was still astride the top rail when the struggling bulls crashed through the fence, splintering the posts and rails, and toppling me to the ground almost under them.
From "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson
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.
