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Shard dates back to Old English (where it was spelled sceard) and is related to Old English scieran, meaning "to cut." English speakers have adopted the modernized shard spelling for most uses, but archaeologists prefer to spell the word sherd when referring to the ancient fragments of pottery (sometimes referred to specifically as potsherds) they unearth. While shard initially referred to exactly such items, today the word is also used more broadly to encompass slivers of intangible concepts. A baseless accusation may be made "without a shard of evidence," and fans of the losing team may "cling to a shard of hope" until the final score. The utility of shard is its, ahem, point.
Examples of shard in a Sentence
Katie Rosenhouse, Southern Living, 27 Feb. 2025
During an impassioned monologue about pharmaceutical industry subsidies, Stewart slammed a coffee mug down on his desk and shattered it, still holding several shards in his palm amid the wreckage.
—Ryan Schwartz, TVLine, 25 Feb. 2025
Carbonating water in a glass vessel carries with it a greater risk of explosion (nobody likes flying shards of glass).
—Wilder Davies, Bon Appétit, 21 Feb. 2025
This is the problem with the slew of research finding microscopic shards of plastic in our arteries, kidneys and livers, the findings that our oceans, food, soil and air are teeming with tiny bits of Tupperware.
—Megha Satyanarayana, Scientific American, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shard
Cite this Entry
“Shard.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shard. Accessed 6 Mar. 2025.
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shard
noun
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