shard

/ʃaːd/

//ʃaːd// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"shard" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“shard” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #29,083. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#29,083
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A piece of broken glass or pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig.

Corpus desk

Index EN-shard · shard · English

shard · rank #29,083 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #29,083
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH shalom

Nearest frequency peer: shalom (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “shard”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “shard” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

shard vs star
60% similar
shard vs shed
60% similar
shard vs shaw
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for shard
PropertyValue
Headwordshard
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ʃaːd/
Letters5
Frequency rank#29,083
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “shard”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).shardlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “shalom” (#29,082), “sieve” (#29,084), “signatories” (#29,085). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “shard” is #29,083. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around shard (IPA /ʃaːd/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #29,083 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for shard, with forms such as "hsard", "sahrd", and "shadr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "star", "shed", "shaw", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English shard, scherd, scheard, schord, from Old English sċeard (“a broken piece; shard”), from Proto-West Germanic *skard, from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“notch; nick”), from *skardaz (“damaged; nicked; scarred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker… The correct English form is shard, spelled S-H-A-R-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    A piece of broken glass or pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig.
  2. 2
    A piece of material, especially rock and similar materials, reminding of a broken piece of glass or pottery.
  3. 3
    A tough scale, sheath, or shell; especially an elytron of a beetle.
  4. 4
    An instance of an MMORPG that is one of several independent and structurally identical virtual worlds, none of which has so many players as to exhaust a system's resources.
  5. 5
    A component of a sharded distributed database.
  6. 6
    A piece of crystal methamphetamine.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how shard appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. You know there is something fascinating beyond that wall because someone's tried to stop you seeing over, and there are shards of glass embedded in the top.
  2. 2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text Inside its exhibit hall, behind panes of glass, in a white-lit lab, a team of restorers works on an ancient Byzantine floor: 44 square yards of stone shards rescue…

Etymology

From Middle English shard, scherd, scheard, schord, from Old English sċeard (“a broken piece; shard”), from Proto-West Germanic *skard, from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“notch; nick”), from *skardaz (“damaged; nicked; scarred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Akin to Scots schaird (“shard”), French écharde (“splinter”), Dutch schaarde (“tear; notch; fragment”), German Scharte (“notch”), Old Norse skarð (“notch, hack”) ( > Danish skår). The database sense is perhaps derived from the online gaming sense or from SHARD (System for Highly Available Replicated Data), name of a 1980s database product.

This word in other languages

casco(Español)éclat(Français)Scherbe(Deutsch)caco(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • hsard
  • sahrd
  • shadr
  • shardd
  • sharrd
  • shhard
  • shrad
  • sshard

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shard - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

hsard2sahrd2shadr2shardd1sharrd1shhard1shrad2sshard1
Edit distance from "shard"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "shard"?
"shard" is spelled S-H-A-R-D. The IPA pronunciation is /ʃaːd/.
What does "shard" mean?
As a noun, "shard" means: A piece of broken glass or pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig.
What words are commonly confused with "shard"?
"shard" is commonly confused with "star", "shed", "shaw". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "shard"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "shard" is /ʃaːd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "shard"?
From Middle English shard, scherd, scheard, schord, from Old English sċeard (“a broken piece; shard”), from Proto-West Germanic *skard, from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“notch; nick”), from *skardaz (“damaged; nicked; scarred”), from Proto-Indo-Europe... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "shard", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sieve#29,084roost#29,070spore#29,101swain#29,112

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

Silvio8 variantssoleil8 variantspushy8 variantsunisex8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list