SPLINTERS Synonyms: 48 Similar and Opposite Words

splinters 1 of 2

noun

plural of splinter

as in slivers

a small flat piece separated from a whole she got a splinter from the unfinished wall

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

splinters

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of splinter

as in slices

to cut into long slender pieces splintered the carrots into little sticks

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of splinters

Noun

Legend has it this imperative caused the park’s architect, William Russell Everitt, to smash the original model to splinters with a baseball bat. — John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 13 July 2026 Congress can swing the axe but taxpayers pick up the splinters. — Andrew Leahey, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026 But as the season neared the winter transfer window, the expectation was for Mainoo to leave on loan rather than continue to pick up splinters on the bench. — Carl Anka, New York Times, 26 May 2026 While Johnny Carson was a monolith, shaped by a dominant TV media structure to be all things to all people, the current crop of late-night hosts are merely splinters. — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 20 May 2026 Bricks, scorched wood frame splinters and other debris are scattered there. — Joseph Flaherty, Arkansas Online, 23 Apr. 2026 In 1903, a vicious winter storm reduced most of the piers to splinters, and by 1906 offshore oil production at Summerland had all but ceased. — Jeffrey Marlow, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026 Upon impact, cannonballs would have sent wooden splinters flying like debris from grenades. — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 5 Apr. 2026 Weeks before King Charles' coronation, The Times reported that Pope Francis, then the leader of the Catholic Church, gave King Charles two splinters of wood believed to be from the True Cross as a personal gift in honor of the coronation. — Janine Henni, PEOPLE, 2 Apr. 2026

Verb

Endlessly switching between apps and online platforms splinters our attention and can lead to digital exhaustion, leaving us anxious, apathetic and unfocused. — Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times, 13 Jan. 2026 Megyn Kelly is continuing her hard-right tack, lashing back at Ben Shapiro and aligning herself with Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon as the MAGA movement dramatically splinters. — Kimberly Nordyke, HollywoodReporter, 23 Dec. 2025 Rumors are swirling in Kansas political circles that Republican leaders are considering initiating a special session like the one that just concluded in Missouri and produced a new map that splinters Kansas City into three congressional districts. — Matthew Kelly, Kansas City Star, 18 Sep. 2025 Instead of picking a single character to follow for the duration of the film, Cregger splinters the mystery among six people, separated into distinct chapters, beginning with Justine. — Peter Debruge, Variety, 5 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for splinters

Noun

Although the wealthy Gulf oil states and small slivers of Arab elites flourished within this system, for most people the American order meant only violence, hopelessness, and deprivation.

— MARC LYNCH, Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026
Combining the compelling crunch and taste of a macaroon cookie with slivers of chocolate in a dreamy churn, Toasted Coconut Chip won Flavor of the Year in 2026.

— Nancy Vienneau, Southern Living, 15 Aug. 2026

Definition of slivers

Verb

That line slices the plane into two halves, one of which will contain two corners of the outer triangle (the bottom half in the figure below).

— Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 10 Aug. 2026
You may already be accustomed to changing channels frequently since the NFL eagerly slices up its schedule across multiple networks.

— Jason Cohen, PC Magazine, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of slices

Noun

But globs of liquid mercury worked just fine to show the melting shards coming together, even though its toxicity meant the special effects crew had to wear protective gear over the two-day shoot.

— ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 28 Aug. 2026
Initial investigations began in 2014, when archaeologists at the University of South Carolina (USC) collaborated with the Muscogee Nation to collect 31 pottery shards from the Etowah mounds.

— Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of shards

Verb

Consider two investors, one who invests $7,500 at the beginning of the year, and another who chops it up into $288 biweekly investments.

— Ryan Ermey, CNBC, 24 Feb. 2026
The proposal chops $150 million from the Developmental Disabilities Administration, which battled against the largest budget cut in last year's negotiations.

— JT Moodee Lockman, CBS News, 21 Jan. 2026

Definition of chops

Noun

Driven by artificial intelligence demand, memory chips are in short supply, pushing prices steadily higher and triggering explosive profit growth for Micron.

— , CNBC, 28 Aug. 2026
In the short run, the massive investment in AI data centers is contributing to higher inflation, driving up the cost of construction and memory chips.

— Scott Horsley, NPR, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of chips

Verb

Guitarist and co-founder Daniel Kessler splits his time between the city and Barcelona.

— Steve Appleford, SPIN, 27 Aug. 2026
The first would decide whether a campaign called People Not Politicians can place a measure on the ballot to strike down the map, which splits Kansas City.

— Kacen Bayless, Kansas City Star, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of splits

Noun

Ancient dirty dishes University of South Carolina archaeologist Adam King and his colleagues found fragments of ancient DNA from Theobroma cacao in the inner surfaces of potsherds from long-ago feasts at Etowah.

— ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 27 Aug. 2026
The study combined technological, petrographic, and geochemical analyses of pottery fragments recovered from a kiln at Qurayyah.

— Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of fragments

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splintering

splinters

splints

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“Splinters.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/splinters. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of splinters

noun

verb

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