particle vs sliver

particle

noun
  • A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something. 

  • A part of speech which cannot be inflected. 

  • A little bit. 

  • Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle. 

  • A part of speech that has no inherent lexical definition but must be associated with another word to impart meaning, often a grammatical category: for example, the English word to in a full infinitive phrase (to eat) or O in a vocative phrase (O Canada), or as a discourse marker (mmm). 

  • In the Roman Catholic church, a crumb of consecrated bread; also the smaller breads used in the communion of the laity. 

sliver

noun
  • A small amount of something; a drop in the bucket; a shred. 

  • A narrow high-rise apartment building. 

  • A strand, or slender roll, of cotton or other fiber in a loose, untwisted state, produced by a carding machine and ready for the roving or slubbing which precedes spinning. 

  • Specifically, a splinter caught under the skin. 

  • A long piece cut or rent off; a sharp, slender fragment; a splinter. 

  • Bait made of pieces of small fish. Compare kibblings. 

verb
  • To cut or divide into long, thin pieces, or into very small pieces; to cut or rend lengthwise; to slit. 

How often have the words particle and sliver occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )