as in slivers
a small sharp piece of something (such as glass or pottery)
Watch out for the shards of glass on the floor.
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Recent Examples of shards
To make this mulch, crush broken terracotta pieces into smaller chunky shards and scatter them around snail and slug-vulnerable plants, including lettuces, hostas, or strawberries.
—
Michelle Mastro, Martha Stewart, 6 Feb. 2026
Images in the aftermath of the attack showed bodies covered in blood lying on the floor of the mosque surrounded by shards of glass and debris.
—Sophia Saifi, CNN Money, 6 Feb. 2026
It’s now called the chocolate pistachio kouign amann, and instead of phyllo dough, his bakery uses toasted shards of kouign amann.
—Linda Zavoral, Mercury News, 5 Feb. 2026
Viewers encountered only the residue of the performance, in the form of an empty black stage and salt casts of the band’s gear, arranged around a pile of black shards.
—Rachel Wetzler, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
The being’s power is broken into 16 shards, which are then spread out throughout many worlds by the conspirators, spreading many kinds of magic across the universe.
—Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 28 Jan. 2026
When the shards of symbolic celebration shatter, they are often left to navigate the jagged realities of structural and institutional neglect.
—Jallicia Jolly, Forbes.com, 24 Jan. 2026
Set aside to cool and then break into irregular shards and reserve for topping the soup.
—Hailee Catalano, Bon Appetit Magazine, 23 Jan. 2026
The explosion had shattered the windows of their apartment, one floor above Griselda’s, and covered them in shards of glass.
—Oriana Van Praag, New Yorker, 20 Jan. 2026
Michelle Mastro, Martha Stewart, 6 Feb. 2026
Images in the aftermath of the attack showed bodies covered in blood lying on the floor of the mosque surrounded by shards of glass and debris.
—Sophia Saifi, CNN Money, 6 Feb. 2026
It’s now called the chocolate pistachio kouign amann, and instead of phyllo dough, his bakery uses toasted shards of kouign amann.
—Linda Zavoral, Mercury News, 5 Feb. 2026
Viewers encountered only the residue of the performance, in the form of an empty black stage and salt casts of the band’s gear, arranged around a pile of black shards.
—Rachel Wetzler, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
The being’s power is broken into 16 shards, which are then spread out throughout many worlds by the conspirators, spreading many kinds of magic across the universe.
—Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 28 Jan. 2026
When the shards of symbolic celebration shatter, they are often left to navigate the jagged realities of structural and institutional neglect.
—Jallicia Jolly, Forbes.com, 24 Jan. 2026
Set aside to cool and then break into irregular shards and reserve for topping the soup.
—Hailee Catalano, Bon Appetit Magazine, 23 Jan. 2026
The explosion had shattered the windows of their apartment, one floor above Griselda’s, and covered them in shards of glass.
—Oriana Van Praag, New Yorker, 20 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shards
Noun
-
To hunt for these slivers of a second, the United States Olympic speedskating team has put traditional analytics on ice and turned to a new tool powered by artificial intelligence to simulate skaters’ complex aerodynamics.—
Jared Perlo,
NBC news,
4 Feb. 2026
-
So when scientists discovered slivers of much older continental crust surrounded by younger oceanic material, something didn’t add up.—
Evan Howell,
Scientific American,
4 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Their ancestors had carved a civilization out of the ice with tools made from whalebone and meteorite fragments.—
Ken Harbaugh,
The Atlantic,
9 Feb. 2026
-
Social media platforms amplify fragments of reality in real time, while verification remains necessarily slow.—
Charles Edward Gehrke,
Fortune,
9 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
That leads to high temperatures, which create a glowing protostar due to the rapid (kinetic) motion of the internal gas particles, and eventually, after a few tens of millions of years, the core temperatures rise high enough (above 4 million K or so) that nuclear fusion of hydrogen begins.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
6 Feb. 2026
-
The findings open a novel way to probe how quarks become bound into protons, neutrons, and other particles.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Tiny beads of blood had seeped out and dried into tiny specks.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 Feb. 2026
-
Also known as sunspots, solar lentigines, or liver spots, age spots are additional specks and bits of pigment caused by excessive sun exposure.—
Essence,
Essence,
27 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
As Dracula, Jones is giddy and joyous with flecks of depravity bursting through as the plot expands to include his ethereal bond with Harker’s fiancée, Mina Murray (also Bleu).—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
6 Feb. 2026
-
Editors could immediately tell that this wasn't your typical tortilla chip, noting the pale color and dark flecks of chia seed.—
Kimberly Holland,
Southern Living,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
In non-theme park play, the game revolves around Illumineers, glimmers, inklands, a lorebook and other buzzwords and actions that are important to players.—
Dewayne Bevil,
The Orlando Sentinel,
15 Jan. 2026
-
There’s still a long way to go to restore his status as a promising prospect, but there have been glimmers of hope the last couple weeks.—
Vincent Z. Mercogliano,
New York Times,
14 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
The stone mat wraps around the faucet and acts as a splash guard, absorbing splashes and spills around the area.—
Jamie Weissman,
Better Homes & Gardens,
10 Feb. 2026
-
The look incorporates Jackson Pollock-esque splashes of orange and royal blue, a departure from last season’s navy-and-white color palette.—
Ryan Finley,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
There are several bits about comedy that haven’t aged well — references to Bill Cosby and Russell Peters, and there’s a scene from The Hangover.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
13 Feb. 2026
-
This brought back family gossip and hesitant bits of information about my mother’s beloved grandfather, my maternal great-grandfather.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Shards.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shards. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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