piece
piece Lexical Profile
piece Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A portion, fragment, or section of an object or material, produced by cutting, tearing, or breaking the whole.
"She cut a generous piece of birthday cake for each guest at the table."
An individual item or unit of a particular type, especially when forming part of a set or used to quantify an uncountable noun.
"Each passenger is permitted to bring one piece of carry-on luggage onto the aircraft."
A written, musical, or artistic creation, such as an essay, news article, musical composition, or sculpture.
"The orchestra performed a challenging classical piece by Beethoven to close the concert."
A small token, figure, or disk moved by a player on a board in games such as chess, checkers, or backgammon.
"He carefully moved his wooden chess piece across the board to capture his opponent's knight."
A coin of a specified value.
"The collector discovered a rare nineteenth-century silver fifty-cent piece at the estate sale."
• verb
To assemble, unite, or reconstruct something complete from separate parts, fragments, or facts (usually followed by "together").
"Historians worked for months to piece together the timeline of events from the surviving letters."
Word Nuance & Usage
Often confused with its homophone "peace" (freedom from disturbance or conflict); "piece" refers to a portion, segment, or artistic work.
• Rhymes for piece
Word Origin & Etymology
From Middle English piece, borrowed from Old French piece, which comes from Vulgar Latin *pettia, likely of Gaulish (Celtic) origin.