shares

n. part; portion; quota, allocation; issue or share of stock; plowshare

v. divide, apportion; receive a share or portion; participate, partake; have in common; allow users on a network to access local resources (Computers)

In financial markets, a share is a unit of account for various financial instruments including stocks, mutual funds, limited partnerships, and REIT's. In British English, use of the word shares in the plural to refer to stock is so common that it almost replaces the word stock itself. And especially in American English, the plural stocks is widely used instead of shares, in other words to refer to the stock (or perhaps originally stock certificates) of even a single company. Traditionalist demands that the plural stocks be used to refer only to stock of more than one company are rarely heard nowadays....
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Noun
1. any of the equal portions into which the capital stock of a corporation is divided and ownership of which is evidenced by a stock certificate; "he bought 100 shares of IBM at the market price"
(hypernym) stock certificate, stock
(part-holonym) stock
2. assets belonging to or due to or contributed by an individual person or group; "he wanted his share in cash"
(synonym) portion, part, percentage
(hypernym) assets
(hyponym) tranche
(part-holonym) net income, net, net profit, lucre, profit, profits, earnings
(derivation) partake, partake in
3. the result of parcelling out or sharing; "death gets more than its share of attention from theologicans"
(synonym) parcel, portion
(hypernym) allotment, apportionment, apportioning, allocation, parceling, parcelling, assignation
(derivation) divvy up, portion out, apportion, deal
4. any one of a number of individual efforts in a common endeavor; "I am proud of my contribution to the team's success"; "they all did their share of the work"
(synonym) contribution, part
(hypernym) attempt, effort, endeavor, endeavour, try
(hyponym) end
5. a sharp steel wedge that cuts loose the top layer of soil
(synonym) plowshare, ploughshare
(hypernym) wedge
(part-holonym) moldboard plow, mouldboard plough
Verb
1. have in common; "Our children share a love of music"; "The two countries share a long border"
(hypernym) overlap
(hyponym) partake
(derivation) sharing
2. use jointly or in common
(hypernym) use, utilize, utilise, apply, employ
(hyponym) double up
(derivation) sharing
3. have, give, or receive a share of; "We shared the cake"
(synonym) partake, partake in
(hypernym) get, acquire
(hyponym) cut in
(derivation) parcel, portion
4. give out as one's portion or share
(synonym) divvy up, portion out, apportion, deal
(hypernym) distribute, give out, hand out
(entail) separate, divide, part
(derivation) parcel, portion
5. communicate; "I'd like to share this idea with you"
(hypernym) communicate, intercommunicate
(derivation) communion, sharing

Certificates or book entries representing ownership in a corporation or similar entity.