shear

C2+ Topic:Clothing & Appearance

Also spelled shorne

US /ʃɪr/ UK /ʃɪə/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like cere /s/ vs /ʃ/ Sounds like sear /s/ vs /ʃ/

verb noun

Meanings

1

verb
to cut off wool or hair with a sharp instrument; a deforming force in materials

They shear the sheep each spring before the heat sets in.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to cut off wool or hair... cut clip trim fleece crop snip

Word family

Forms shorn

Derived forms shearershearingshears

Related forms shard share sheer score

Etymology

From Old English sceran ('to cut, shear'), from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ('to cut').

sceran Old English *(s)ker- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Clothing & Appearance Word Formation & Derivatives

# shear

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb, noun
**IPA (US):** ʃɪr
**IPA (UK):** ʃɪə

## Meanings
1. to cut off wool or hair with a sharp instrument; a deforming force in materials

## Examples
- They shear the sheep each spring before the heat sets in.

## Synonyms
- cut
- clip
- trim
- fleece
- crop
- snip

## Derived Forms
- shearer
- shearing
- shears

## Related Forms
- shard
- share
- sheer
- score

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: sceran
- Root: *(s)ker-

## Etymology
From Old English sceran ('to cut, shear'), from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ('to cut').

## AI Etymology
Shear comes from Old English sceran ('to cut, shear'), from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ('to cut'). The historical chain includes Old English sceran and Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-. Older glosses in the chain include "to cut, shear" and "to cut", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, shear is best read as borrowing, yielding an English verb and noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a verb and noun, with the sense "to cut off wool or hair with a sharp instrument; a deforming force in materials". English derivatives include shearer, shearing, and shears; related forms include shard, share, sheer, and score. The result is an English verb and noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Clothing & Appearance
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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shear

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