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Abstract The mechanism of hard surfaces worn by soft polymers is not clearly understood. In this paper, a new hypothesis has been proposed, it holds that the stress acting on the hard surface under certain working conditions is the main reason for wear of the hard surface by a soft polymer. The hypothesis was investigated by changing the contact form between tribo-pairs. For this, friction tests between six polymer spheres and smooth, rough, and inclined monocrystalline silicon surfaces were carried out. The results show that for the same tribo-pair, the silicon surface will not be worn in some contact forms, but in other contact forms it will be worn. We believe the wear of hard surface by a soft polymer is the result of the combined stress state action on the hard surface.