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shard

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shard¹

  • /ˈʃɑːd/ UK
  • [ˈʃɑːd] UK
  • /ˈʃɐːd/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [ˈʃɐ̞ːd] Australia, New Zealand
  • /ˈʃɑɹd/ Canada, US
  • [ˈʃɑɹd] Canada, US
  • /ˈʃaɾd/ Scotland

Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)d

Where it comes from

From Middle English shard, scherd, scheard, schord, from Old English sċeard (“a broken piece; shard”), from Proto-West Germanic *skard, from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“notch; nick”), from *skardaz (“damaged; nicked; scarred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Akin to Scots schaird (“shard”), French écharde (“splinter”), Dutch schaarde (“tear; notch; fragment”), German Scharte (“notch”), Old Norse skarð (“notch, hack”) ( > Danish skår).

The database sense is perhaps derived from the online gaming sense or from SHARD (System for Highly Available Replicated Data), name of a 1980s database product.

noun shards · sherd

  1. A piece of broken glass or pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig. You know there is something fascinating beyond that wall because someone's tried to stop you seeing over, and there are shards of glass embedded in the top.

    Similar: potsherd

  2. broadly A piece of material, especially rock and similar materials, reminding of a broken piece of glass or pottery. 2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text Inside its exhibit hall, behind panes of glass, in a white-lit lab, a team of restorers works on an ancien

    Similar: splinter

  3. A food preparation similar in shape to a shard of, e.g., glass, generally made from a sheet of a hard product that is then shattered to produce smaller pieces. A shard of chocolate adorns the dish.
  4. A tough scale, sheath, or shell; especially an elytron of a beetle.
  5. Internet An instance of an MMORPG that is one of several independent and structurally identical virtual worlds, none of which has so many players as to exhaust a system's resources. 1997, Ultima Online. The term "shard" is related to the backstory of the game, in which the Gem of Immortality is shattered by the Stranger, the protagonist of Ultima I. "The planet was still bound to the jewel's magic, even as it lay shattered upon the floor of Mondain's castle. For, within each sh
  6. A component of a sharded distributed database.

    Similar: partition

  7. in plural, singular, slang A piece of crystal methamphetamine.

verb shards · sharding · sharded · sherd

  1. intransitive To fall apart into shards, usually as the result of impact or explosion.
  2. transitive To break (something) into shards.
  3. Internet, transitive To divide (an MMORPG) into several shards, or to establish a shard of one.

shard²

  • /ˈʃɑːd/ UK
  • [ˈʃɑːd] UK
  • /ˈʃɐːd/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [ˈʃɐ̞ːd] Australia, New Zealand
  • /ˈʃɑɹd/ Canada, US
  • [ˈʃɑɹd] Canada, US
  • /ˈʃaɾd/ Scotland

Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)d

noun

  1. uncountable The plant chard. Not Heathpout, or the rarer Bird, Which Phasis, or Ionia yields, More pleasing Morsels would afford Than the fat Olives of my Fields; Than Shards or Mallows for the Pot, That keep the loosen’d Body sound, Or than the Lamb that falls by Lot, To the just Guardian of my Ground.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: fragment, sherd, splinter, sliver, outburst, flare, flash, bite, spark, bang, sparkle, lustre, glow, shine, brilliance, peak

Translations

Every language

noun piece of glass or pottery

Españolcasco, añicos, esquirla, tiesto
Portuguêscaco, estilhaço
Françaiséclat, tesson
DeutschScherbe
Italianoframmento, coccio
Românăciob
Русскийоско́лок oskólok, черепо́к čerepók
العربيةكِسْرَة kisra
עבריתרְסִיס r'sis

noun piece of rock or similar

Españoltasquil

noun tough scale

Русскийпа́нцирь páncirʹ

verb to fall apart

Españolestallar
Françaiséclater
Italianoframmentare
Românăsparge, ciobi
Русскийразбива́ться razbivátʹsja, разби́ться razbítʹsja

verb to break

Españolfragmentar
Italianoframmentarsi
Românăsparge
Русскийразбива́ть razbivátʹ, разби́ть razbítʹ

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"shard." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shard. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

shard. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shard

Chicago

"shard." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shard.

BibTeX
@misc{shard_2026,
  title = {shard},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shard},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}