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Sunder vs Shatter - What's the difference?

sunder | shatter |

In transitive terms the difference between sunder and shatter

is that sunder is to break or separate or to break apart, especially with force while shatter is to dispirit or emotionally defeat.

In intransitive terms the difference between sunder and shatter

is that sunder is to part, separate while shatter is to smash, or break into tiny pieces.

As an adjective sunder

is sundry; separate; different.

sunder

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl), from (etyl) .

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (dialectal, or, obsolete) Sundry; separate; different.
  • Derived terms
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . More at sundry.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To break or separate or to break apart, especially with force.
  • To , separate.
  • {{quote-book
    , year=2003 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Dean Barton , title=Searching for the Evergreen Man , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=Llumina Press , isbn=9781932047233 , page=69 , passage=… Carlo finally saw Everything, before it sunders' into things; he saw Knowledge before it '''sunders''' into knowing; he saw Integrity before it '''sunders''' in integrals; he saw Unity before it ' sunders into units. }}
  • (UK, dialect, dated, transitive) To expose to the sun and wind.
  • (Halliwell)
    Quotations
    * 1881 , Severed Selves, lines 8-9 *: '' Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of sundering seas: — *: '' Such are we now.
    Derived terms
    * asunder * sunderance

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a separation into parts; a division or severance
  • * 1939 , , Additional Poems , VII, lines 2-4
  • He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
    I shook his hand and tore my heart in sunder
    And went with half my life about my ways.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    shatter

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to violently break something into pieces.
  • The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.
    a high-pitched voice that could shatter glass
    The old oak tree has been shattered by lightning.
  • to destroy or disable something.
  • to smash, or break into tiny pieces.
  • to dispirit or emotionally defeat
  • to be shattered''' in intellect; to have '''shattered''' hopes, or a '''shattered constitution
  • * 1984 Martyn Burke, The commissar's report, p36
  • Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.
  • * 1992 Rose Gradym "Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!" Weekly World News , Vol. 13, No. 38 (23 June, 1992), p41
  • A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.
  • * 2006 A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution, p163
  • The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
  • * Norris
  • a man of a loose, volatile, and shattered humour
  • (obsolete) To scatter about.
  • * Milton
  • Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
  • to break a glass into shatters
    (Jonathan Swift)