as in chip
a small flat piece separated from a whole
she got a splinter from the unfinished wall
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
2
as in to split
to cause (people) to break up into opposing groups
The board splintered as soon as the most contentious issues came up for discussion.
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of splinter
Tom O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 June 2025
Fences shatter in an explosion of splinters; buildings collapse dramatically, showering rubble across the street.
—Joshua Lamb, Forbes.com, 20 May 2025
Stacey Abrams, Time, 28 Aug. 2025
With that, the trio of Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas come swaggering and smiling from the wings, strolling to the tip of a catwalk together, the professional differences that splintered their brotherly union for a spell neatly compartmentalized for 2 ½-hours of polished pop digested by adoring fans.
—Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today, 13 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for splinter
Noun
During this period, Hamas emerged as a powerful splinter of the Muslim Brotherhood movement with the aim of destroying Israel and establishing an Islamist Palestinian state.
—Tom O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 June 2025
Fences shatter in an explosion of splinters; buildings collapse dramatically, showering rubble across the street.
—Joshua Lamb, Forbes.com, 20 May 2025
Verb
Advertisement But even such splintering policies impact all of us.
—Stacey Abrams, Time, 28 Aug. 2025
With that, the trio of Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas come swaggering and smiling from the wings, strolling to the tip of a catwalk together, the professional differences that splintered their brotherly union for a spell neatly compartmentalized for 2 ½-hours of polished pop digested by adoring fans.
—Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today, 13 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for splinter
Recent Examples of Synonyms for splinter
Noun
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Messi’s deft chip over the goalkeeper and two scrambling defenders was a vintage finish from the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner.—
Felipe Cardenas,
New York Times,
5 Sep. 2025
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America’s supremacy in chip designing is uncontested.—
Tiana Lowe Doescher,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Shoppers recommend slicing it before freezing so individual portions are ready to grab whenever a craving hits.—
Elizabeth Fogarty,
Better Homes & Gardens,
4 Sep. 2025
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Its beauty lies in low-slung pastel buildings, pine forests edging the city, and ferries slicing through the Baltic toward fortress islands like Suomenlinna—while locals linger in cafés over cardamom buns or get cozy in harborside saunas.—
Lewis Nunn,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Kherson, Ukraine — Russia has launched a new bid to exert control over the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson by threatening key access roads with its drones and trying to split it in two by striking a vital bridge.—
Nick Paton Walsh,
CNN Money,
7 Aug. 2025
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One major critique of this season is that there was no need to split its episodes in half.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
6 Aug. 2025
Noun
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The token slivers of human-interest drama (a divorce battle, a visit to the pediatrician) that are meant to counterpoint the possibility of Armageddon with the oh-so-ironic triviality of quotidian concerns.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
2 Sep. 2025
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Obviously, the overall deliveries are instrumental in establishing the average unit cost for each 30-second sliver of airtime, but when a half-minute is commanding $8 million a pop, there’s only so much extra dough that can be squeezed out of the Big Game’s sponsors.—
Anthony Crupi,
Sportico.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Henry rushed for well over 100 yards on his first-down carries alone, and Jackson chopped Buffalo with his arm and legs.—
The Athletic NFL Staff,
New York Times,
8 Sep. 2025
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Sprinkle chopped banana evenly over the filling.—
Sarah Martens,
Better Homes & Gardens,
7 Sep. 2025
Verb
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But if your peonies are flowering less over time or nearby plants are encroaching on their growing space, dividing them in fall is one simple solution.—
Megan Hughes,
Better Homes & Gardens,
3 Sep. 2025
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Every Democrat in the chamber supported the legislation while Republicans were evenly divided.—
Clara Hendrickson,
Freep.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Police and shark biologists are analyzing Psillakis’s body and fragments of his surfboard, as well as speaking with witnesses, to determine the shark species, 9News added.—
Laura Sharman,
CNN Money,
7 Sep. 2025
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The team's model demonstrated that turbulence, or irregular motion, in giant collapsing gas clouds can form lower-mass cloud fragments from which lower-mass stars condense.—
Luke Keller,
Space.com,
7 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Did a Smurl sister really vomit bloody glass shards?—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
5 Sep. 2025
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But there are also flashes of visual splendor, like tiny shards of some kind of exotic broken vase — fragments of what could have been.—
Jordan Mintzer,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Splinter.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/splinter. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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