share
1 Americannoun
-
the full or proper portion or part allotted or belonging to or contributed or owed by an individual or group.
- Synonyms:
- lot, quota, assessment, ration, allocation, allotment
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one of the equal fractional parts into which the capital stock of a joint-stock company or a corporation is divided.
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Digital Technology.
-
a digital file or document that can be accessed by specific users on a computer network, as for viewing, downloading, or making changes to it.
I just sent you a share—can you improve the second paragraph?
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an act of sharing online content with specific users on a computer network.
You can do a video share with friends and family.
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verb (used with object)
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shares,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shared,
past participle, past
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sharing
present participle
-
to divide and distribute in shares; apportion.
- Synonyms:
- mete, dole (out), deal, parcel out, allot
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to use, participate in, enjoy, receive, etc., jointly.
The two chemists shared the Nobel Prize.
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Digital Technology. to give specific users access to (online content), as by posting it on a social media website or sending it as an email attachment: a shared spreadsheet.
to share photos on Instagram;
a shared spreadsheet.
verb (used without object)
-
shares,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shared,
past participle, past
-
sharing
present participle
-
to have a share or part; take part (often followed byin ).
-
to divide, apportion, or receive equally.
-
Digital Technology. to give specific users access to online content.
You can share via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
adjective
idioms
noun
noun
-
a part or portion of something owned, allotted to, or contributed by a person or group
-
(often plural) any of the equal parts, usually of low par value, into which the capital stock of a company is divided: ownership of shares carries the right to receive a proportion of the company's profits See also ordinary shares preference shares
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informal to share (something) with another or others
verb
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to divide or apportion, esp equally
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to receive or contribute a portion of
we can share the cost of the petrol
six people shared in the inheritance
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to join with another or others in the use of (something)
can I share your umbrella?
noun
Synonym Usage
Share, partake, participate mean to join with others or to receive in common with others. To share is to give or receive a part of something, or to enjoy or assume something in common: to share in another's experiences. To partake is to take for one's own personal use a portion of something: to partake of food. To participate is especially to join with others in some thought, feeling, or, particularly, some action: to participate in a race, in a conversation.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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sharernoun
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half-sharedadjective
-
nonsharingadjective
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sharableadjective
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shareableadjective
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unsharableadjective
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unshareableadjective
-
unsharedadjective
-
unsharingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sharesimple
-
sharessimple
-
have sharedperfect
-
has sharedperfect
-
am sharingprogressive
-
are sharingprogressive
-
is sharingprogressive
-
have been sharingperfect progressive
-
has been sharingperfect progressive
Past
-
sharedsimple
-
had sharedperfect
-
was sharingprogressive
-
were sharingprogressive
-
had been sharingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of share1
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English noun shar(e), sharre “cutting, division,” Old English scearu “fork of the body, groin”; cognate with Dutch schaar, German Schar “troop”; see shear
Origin of share2
First recorded before 900; Middle English shar(e), sharre, Old English scear, scer; cognate with German Schar; see shear
Explanation
When you hungrily eye the pizzas your friends ordered, count everyone in the room, and then mentally divide the number of slices by the number of people, you're figuring out your share, or portion, of pizza. Your share of something can be the part of the total that's due to you — your share of the piñata candy — or it can be the section of something you're responsible for, like doing your share of cleaning out the garage. When you use share as a verb, it means to give or distribute a portion of something. The word share and its meaning of dividing into pieces come from the Proto-Indo-European word sker, "to cut."
Vocabulary lists containing share
Lyrics from "Umbrella" by Rihanna
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Business, List 2
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"Talkin' 'bout a Revolution"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Tatton Park's annual Apple Day has been cancelled for the first time in 24 years after extreme weather and increased pest activity left organisers short of fruit to share with visitors.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
What they share is an effort to build financial security amid high living costs and an uncertain economic future.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
But it was also complicated because there are real costs when you share something.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
Leverage works great when asset prices rise, but concentrating a large share of your wealth in a single, illiquid, undiversified asset also magnifies downside risk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Wishing she could share his confidence, Renn knelt and fumbled in her pack for a salmon cake to give to Wolf.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
With restrictions on Micron’s ability to repurchase its shares set to lift in December, Cassidy said management could discuss potentially increasing buybacks throughout fiscal 2027, which kicked off earlier this month.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
Chester County public health officials did not wait long to launch a response to the growing measles outbreak in their community, which shares a border with Lancaster County, the epicentre of the outbreak.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Diller’s People Inc., which holds a roughly 27% stake in MGM Resorts, had offered to buy the remaining shares in a deal valuing the company at about $12.4 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Newmont, GigaCloud Technology, and Deere shares have risen since Barron’s highlighted them.
From Barron's
This hazmat is shorter in height than Xander, but my system tells me that their hair shares the same color pigments.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
Todd Sohn, chief ETF strategist at Baird Strategas, pitched managed futures as a possible bond replacement in a report shared with MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
A study of racially integrated Baltimore neighborhoods, where black and white residents shared the same income, showed no racial gap in health outcomes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
After 25 years, our way of looking at art and the art that we’ve shared together is so deeply intertwined that anything I write is unimaginable without her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
The pattern remained similar in these comparisons, suggesting that shared family factors alone are unlikely to explain the associations.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
The flat we now shared with four other families made our spartan apartment in Kazimierz seem like a palace.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Executives introduced Next earlier this year and are sharing details on its plans at an investor event Wednesday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
For an upcoming January wedding, my friends and I are sharing a big house we rented on Airbnb to save on hotel costs.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
VW CEO Oliver Blume said in April of this year that Volkswagen was considering sharing spare European factory capacity with Chinese joint-venture partners.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
Gretta’s songwriting has paved the way for this opportunity, but Max is told that he’s being signed as a singer-songwriter and sharing credit is a deal-breaker.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
It was easy to imagine sitting beside him, sharing this donut.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
