overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

share.

A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ʃɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ʃɛː/British, Southern, Standard/ʃɛɚ/General-American/ʃeː/Australia
  1. A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone.

    Each of the robbers took a share of the loot.
    The TV programme was cancelled because it only gained a 10% share of that night's viewing audience.
  2. A financial instrument that shows that one owns a part of a company that provides the benefit of limited liability.

  3. A configuration enabling a resource to be shared over a network.

    Upload media from the browser or directly to the file share.
  4. The action of sharing something with other people via social media.

  5. The sharebone or pubis.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)koréh₂ Proto-Germanic *skarō Proto-West Germanic *skaru Old English sċearu Middle English schare English share From Middle English schare, schere, from Old English sċearu (“a cutting, shaving, a shearing, tonsure, part, division, share”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaru, from Proto-Germanic *skarō (“a division, detachment”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut, divide”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian skar, sker (“a share in a communal pasture”), Dutch schare (“share in property”), German Schar (“band, troop, party, company”), Icelandic skor (“department”). Compare shard, shear. Doublet of eschel.

verb/ʃɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ʃɛː/British, Southern, Standard/ʃɛɚ/General-American/ʃeː/Australia
  1. To give part of what one has to somebody else to use or consume.

  2. To have or use in common.

    to share a shelter with another
    They share a language.
  3. To divide and distribute.

  4. To tell to another.

    He shared his story with the press.
  5. To allow public or private sharing of resources in a network, or content on social media.

    to share a folder, a screen
    to share a video, a playlist
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)koréh₂ Proto-Germanic *skarō Proto-West Germanic *skaru Old English sċearu Middle English schare English share From Middle English schare, schere, from Old English sċearu (“a cutting, shaving, a shearing, tonsure, part, division, share”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaru, from Proto-Germanic *skarō (“a division, detachment”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut, divide”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian skar, sker (“a share in a communal pasture”), Dutch schare (“share in property”), German Schar (“band, troop, party, company”), Icelandic skor (“department”). Compare shard, shear. Doublet of eschel.

noun/ʃɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ʃɛː/British, Southern, Standard/ʃɛɚ/General-American/ʃeː/Australia
  1. The cutting blade of an agricultural machine like a plough, a cultivator or a seeding-machine.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English schar, schare, from Old English sċear, sċær (“ploughshare”), from Proto-Germanic *skaraz (“ploughshare”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Cognate with Dutch schaar (“ploughshare”), dialectal German Schar (“ploughshare”), Danish (plov)skær (“ploughshare”). More at shear.

verb/ʃɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ʃɛː/British, Southern, Standard/ʃɛɚ/General-American/ʃeː/Australia
  1. To cut; to shear; to cleave; to divide.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English schar, schare, from Old English sċear, sċær (“ploughshare”), from Proto-Germanic *skaraz (“ploughshare”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Cognate with Dutch schaar (“ploughshare”), dialectal German Schar (“ploughshare”), Danish (plov)skær (“ploughshare”). More at shear.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

share has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

share studioshare workshello, share

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.