Standard Lemma guide

potsherd

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈpɒt.ʃɜːd/
  • General-American: /ˈpɑt.ʃəɹd/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A piece of ceramic from pottery, often found on an archaeological site.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: often

Topics: archaeology, history, human-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: shard, sherd

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a shard of pottery

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: shard, sherd, fragment

History

Etymology

From Middle English pot-sherd, pot-schord, pot scherd, pot scarth, from Middle English pot, pote, potte (“a container, pot, vessel; especially an earthenware vessel”) (from late Old English pot, pott (“a pot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a type of vessel”)) + Middle English sherd (“piece of fired clay or broken earthenware; potsherd”) (from Old English sceard (“a shard, sherd”), from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“a nick, notch”)); equivalent to pot + sherd (“shard”).

Across languages

Translations

32 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: potskerf — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Bulgarian: чиреп (čirep) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Catalan: padellàs — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Danish: potteskår — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Dutch: potscherf — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Finnish: ruukunsirpale — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • French: tesson — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Galician: testo — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • German: Scherbe — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • German: Tonscherbe — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • German: Topfscherbe — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Ancient Greek: ὄστρακον (óstrakon) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Ingrian: pataluhka — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Italian: coccio — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Latin: testa — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Macedonian: откршок (otkršok) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Macedonian: цреп (crep) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Macedonian: црепче (crepče) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Māori: maramara rīhi — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Navajo: kitsʼiil — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Norwegian Bokmål: potteskår — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Portuguese: caco — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Spanish: casco — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Spanish: tiesto — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Swahili: gae — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Swedish: krukskärva — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Tamil: சில் (cil) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Tamil: ஓடு (ōṭu) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Telugu: చిల్లపెంకు (cillapeṅku) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Yiddish: שאַרבן (sharbn) — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Yoruba: àpádìdì — piece of ceramic from pottery
  • Yoruba: àpáàdì — piece of ceramic from pottery