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 ESL was a splinter league formed by 12 of Europe's biggest clubs, including six from the Premier League.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
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
President Bola Tinubu said the attackers were militants from Ansaru, a Boko Haram splinter group known to operate in central Nigeria, extending into the southwest.
From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026
To understand this historic shift, The Wall Street Journal spoke to heads of government, their ministers and top aides to reconstruct the closed-door meetings where the alliance began to splinter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Then she picked at the window sill until she had a splinter of wood and put it in her mouth.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
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
As attention splinters and our realities feel increasingly fractured, it makes sense that Coachella would begin to mirror that condition, each version just real enough to feel like the whole thing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2026
He loved running down the wooden floors of Windsor Castle with his cousins when he was younger trying to avoid getting splinters.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2025
At the very least, think of the terrible places she could get splinters!
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
Orator William M. Evarts declared: “I tell you that when the statue of Washington sustains in its firm hand the splintered flag-staff of Fort Sumter, it means something.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
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
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
I have seen way too many charred and splintered husks of trees to be blasé about something like that, let me tell you.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
Vannacci, a former paratrooper, launched FN earlier this year after splintering from Matteo Salvini's League party.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
The serious journalism Margaret aspires to do is splintering under our distrust of who controls the megaphones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Now this very coalition is splintering as his support spirals downward.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 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
“There’s more interesting things to do than hunt ” There was a loud splintering noise off in the trees: kkkrek- ke-krrk.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
