shard
C1Formal, Literary, Technical
Definition
Meaning
A broken piece or fragment of a brittle substance, typically of glass, pottery, or a hard material.
A piece or fragment of something abstract that has broken apart or been dispersed, such as a broken relationship, memory, or a data fragment in computing.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
Primarily refers to fragments resulting from breakage, not natural small pieces. Carries connotations of damage, destruction, or incompleteness.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
No major spelling or meaning differences. 'Potsherd' (fragment of pottery) is a more specific archaeological term used in both varieties.
Connotations
Slightly more literary in both varieties. In technical contexts (computing, gaming), usage is identical.
Frequency
Equally low-frequency in general use, but common in specific fields like archaeology, fantasy literature, and IT.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[shard] of [material][adjective] [shard][verb] a [shard]Vocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “pick up the shards (of one's life)”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Rare, except in IT contexts referring to database sharding (splitting data).
Academic
Common in archaeology and materials science for describing fragments of artefacts.
Everyday
Used for describing broken glass or ceramics, often after an accident.
Technical
Central in IT (database sharding), gaming (item fragments), and archaeology.
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- The database was sharded to improve performance.
- They plan to shard the system across multiple servers.
American English
- The application shards the data automatically.
- We need to shard these large tables.
adverb
British English
- N/A
American English
- N/A
adjective
British English
- N/A (Not standard as an adjective. 'Shard-like' is possible.)
American English
- N/A (Not standard as an adjective. 'Sharded' is a computing participle.)
Examples
By CEFR Level
- Be careful! There are shards of glass on the floor.
- She carefully picked up the sharp shard of the broken vase.
- Archaeologists discovered pottery shards dating back to the Roman era.
- The traumatic event left her with only scattered shards of memory.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Imagine a SHARP + HARD piece of glass - a SHARD.
Conceptual Metaphor
FRAGMENTS ARE SHARDS (of memory, hope, life, data).
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Не путать с 'черепок' (potsherd) - это частный случай shard. Более общее значение - 'осколок', 'обломок'.
Common Mistakes
- Using 'shard' for small, non-broken pieces (e.g., a shard of chocolate).
- Confusing 'sherd' (archaeology) and 'shard' (general).
Practice
Quiz
In which context is 'shard' LEAST likely to be used?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
No, it can be used for any brittle material like pottery, ceramic, ice, or even metaphorically for abstract things like memories.
'Sherd' (or 'potsherd') is specifically a fragment of pottery, used mainly in archaeology. 'Shard' is the more general term.
Yes, in computing (database architecture), 'to shard' means to split a database into smaller, faster pieces called shards.
It's a C1-level word. It's common in specific fields (IT, archaeology, fantasy) but less common in everyday conversation than 'piece' or 'fragment'.