shrapnel

noun

shrap·​nel ˈshrap-nᵊl 

 especially Southern  ˈsrap-

plural shrapnel

1

: a projectile that consists of a case provided with a powder charge and a large number of usually lead balls and that is exploded in flight

2

: bomb, mine, or shell fragments

Examples of shrapnel in a Sentence

He has a piece of shrapnel in his leg.

Shrapnel from the explosion wounded many people.

Recent Examples on the Web

Photos from the strike show shrapnel covering a road near the terminal. —Sophie Clark yevgeny Kuklychev, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 May 2025

The shrapnel of metabolic processes and species interactions generates a cascade of impacts. —Quanta Magazine, 5 Mar. 2025

The mine detonated, but the shrapnel missed Pavlov’s car—a good thing, in the end, Chervinsky said, because Pavlov’s wife was in the passenger seat. —Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025

After emitting a blinding flash, the blazing rock’s explosion rattled buildings, shattered windows, and hospitalized roughly 1,500 civilians with the waves of its shrapnel. —Max Bennett, Discover Magazine, 12 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Henry Shrapnel †1842 English artillery officer

First Known Use

1806, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

shrapnel

noun

shrap·​nel ˈshrap-nᵊl 

plural shrapnel

1

: a shell designed to burst and scatter metal balls with which it is filled along with jagged fragments of the case

2

: metal pieces from an exploded bomb, shell, or mine