noun
shard
shahd
noun
1
A sharp broken piece of glass, pottery, or similar brittle material.
"He cut his foot on a shard of glass hidden in the sand."
"Archaeologists found shards of ancient pottery at the site."
2
In computing, one segment of a database or online game world that has been split up to spread the load across multiple servers.
"The game assigns each new player to a shard with lighter traffic."
How to Use Shard
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA sharp broken fragment, or (in tech) one partitioned piece of a larger system.
Common pairings
shard of glass
pottery shards
database shard
Word Forms
sharded past tense, shards plural, shards singular
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He cut his foot on a _____ of glass hidden in the sand.
Etymology
From Old English sceard, "a broken piece," related to an old root meaning "to cut."