. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
you have here. The definition of the word
will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English pece , peece , peice , from Old French piece , from Late Latin petia , pettia , possibly from Gaulish *pettyā , from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis ( “ piece, portion ” ) ; doublet of English fit , fytte , fytt ( “ musical piece, chapter ” ) , Icelandic fit ( “ web ” ) , German Fitze ( “ skein ” ) , from Old High German *fitjâ . Compare Welsh peth , Breton pez ( “ thing ” ) , Irish cuid . Compare French pièce , Portuguese peça , Spanish pieza , Italian pezza , Italian pezzo .
Pronunciation
Noun
piece (plural pieces )
A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.
I’d like another piece of pie.
I've lost a piece of this jigsaw puzzle.
1624 , John Donne , “17. Meditation”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: , London: Printed by A[ugustine] M[atthews ] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC ; republished as Geoffrey Keynes , edited by John Sparrow, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions: , Cambridge: At the University Press , 1923 , →OCLC , page 98 , lines 2–3 :No man is an Iland , intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent , a part of the maine ; [ …]
A single item belonging to a class of similar items.
a piece of machinery
a piece of software
a useful piece of advice
2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere ”, in The Economist , volume 408 , number 8845 :[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, [ …]
( chess ) One of the figures used in playing chess , specifically a higher-value figure as distinguished from a pawn ; by extension, a similar counter etc. in other games .
Synonym: game piece
1959 , Hans Kmoch , Pawn Power in Chess , section I:Pawns, unlike pieces , move only in one direction: forward.
A coin , especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency .
a sixpenny piece
An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, musical composition, literary work, etc.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:musical composition
She played two beautiful pieces on the piano.
An article published in the press .
Today's paper has an interesting piece on medical research.
1979 , Woody Allen, Manhattan , spoken by Isaac Davis (Woody Allen):No, I didn't read the piece on China's faceless masses, I was, I was checking out the lingerie ads.
( military ) An artillery gun .
1743 , Robert Drury , The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar , London, page 55 :[ …] all our Ammunition was spent. Those of us who had Money made Slugs of it; their next Shift was to take the middle Screws out of their Guns, and charge their Pieces with them.
( US , colloquial ) A gun .
He's packin' a piece !
2005 , “Bloody War”, in Certified , performed by David Banner:I wanted peace, but now my piece is clearing out the block.
2006 , Noire , Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale , New York, N.Y.: One World , Ballantine Books , →ISBN , page 116 :It was do or be done. Get or get gotten. It was self-preservation like I'd never felt before, and when Rome passed me his piece I didn't even hesitate as I raised that bitch in the air and aimed it at Vyreen.
( US , Canada , colloquial , short for hairpiece ) A toupee or wig , especially when worn by a man.
The announcer is wearing a new piece .
( Scotland , Ireland , UK , US , dialectal ) A slice or other quantity of bread , eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack .
2008 , James Kelman , Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin, published 2009 , page 46 :My grannie came and gived them all a piece and jam and cups of water then I was to bring them back out to the street and play a game.
( US , colloquial , vulgar ) A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail .
I got a piece at lunchtime.
( US , colloquial , mildly vulgar , short for piece of crap /piece of shit ) A shoddy or worthless object ( usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances ) .
Ugh, my new computer is such a piece . I'm taking it back to the store tomorrow.
( US , slang ) A cannabis pipe .
( baseball , uncountable ) Used to describe a pitch that has been hit but not well, usually either being caught by the opposing team or going foul . Usually used in the past tense with get .
he got a piece of that one; she got a piece of the ball [ …] and it's going foul.
( dated , sometimes derogatory ) An individual; a person.
a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e. , Philip Sidney ], An Apologie for Poetrie. , London: for Henry Olney, , published 1595 , →OCLC ; republished as Edward Arber , editor, An Apologie for Poetrie (English Reprints), London: , 1 April 1868 , →OCLC :If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare , “The Tempest ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio ), London: Isaac Iaggard , and Ed Blount , published 1623 , →OCLC , :Thy mother was a piece of virtue.
1825 , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Aid to Reflection :His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.
( obsolete ) A castle; a fortified building.
1569 , Richard Grafton , A Chronicle at Large, and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande, , London: Henry Denham , , for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey Toye , →OCLC ; republished in Grafton’s Chronicle; or, History of England. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II) , London: [George Woodfall ] for J Johnson ; , 1809 , →OCLC :He receyued againe all the holdes and peeces which his father had lost.
( US ) A pacifier ; a dummy .
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pacifier
( colloquial ) A distance .
a far piece
located a fair piece away from their camp
a fair piece off
( rowing ) A structured practice row , often used for performance evaluation.
At practice we rowed four 5,000 meter pieces .
That last piece was torture.
An amount of work to be done at one time; a unit of piece work .
( slang ) An ounce of a recreational drug .
2017 , Matt Meyer, Déqui Kioni-Sadiki, Sekou Odinga, Look for Me in the Whirlwind :In fact, that was back during the era when you could buy a piece of heroin, an ounce of heroin, for $500 and cut it three times for a 3-to-1 cut on it and the dope would still be good.
Usage notes
When used as a baseball term, the term is figurative in that the baseball is almost never broken into pieces. It is rare in modern baseball for the cover of a baseball to even partially tear loose. In professional baseball, several new, not previously played baseballs are used in each game.
It could be argued that the phrase was never meant (not even metaphorically) to refer to breaking the ball into pieces, and that "get a piece of the ball" means the bat contacts only a small area of the ball - in other words, that the ball is hit off-center. In that case "get" would mean "succeed in hitting", not "obtain".
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
part of a larger whole
Afrikaans: stuk
Albanian: copë (sq)
Arabic: قِطْعَة f ( qiṭʕa )
Egyptian Arabic: حتة f ( ḥeta )
Hijazi Arabic: قِطْعَة f ( giṭʕa ) , شَقْفَة f ( šagfa )
Moroccan Arabic: طرف ( ṭarf )
South Levantine Arabic: قِطْعَة f ( qiṭʕa ) , شَقْفَة f ( šaʔfa, šaʔfe )
Armenian: մաս (hy) ( mas ) , կտոր (hy) ( ktor )
Azerbaijani: hissə (az) , tikə (az) , parça (az)
Bashkir: өлөш ( ölöş )
Belarusian: кусо́к m ( kusók ) , кава́лак (be) m ( kaválak ) , ча́стка (be) f ( částka )
Belizean Creole: pees
Bengali: টুকরো (bn) ( ṭukrō ) , কেতা (bn) ( keta ) , তরফ (bn) ( toroph )
Bulgarian: парче́ (bg) n ( parčé ) , част (bg) f ( čast )
Burmese: အပိုင်းအစ (my) ( a.puing:a.ca. ) , အပိုင်း (my) ( a.puing: ) , အစ (my) ( a.ca. )
Catalan: peça (ca) f , tros (ca) m
Chamicuro: naspejka
Chinese:
Cantonese: 嚿 ( gau6 ) , 塊 / 块 ( faai3 )
Mandarin: 片 (zh) ( piàn ) , 塊 / 块 (zh) ( kuài ) , 片段 (zh) ( piànduàn ) , 部分 (zh) ( bùfen )
Czech: kus (cs) m
Danish: stykke (da) n , del (da) c
Dutch: stuk (nl) n , deel (nl) n , onderdeel (nl) n
Esperanto: peco n
Farefare: zõrga
Faroese: stykki n , petti n
Finnish: pala (fi) , palanen (fi) ; kappale (fi) ; osa (fi)
French: morceau (fr) m , part (fr) f , bout (fr) m , pièce (fr) f
Galician: peza (gl) f
Georgian: ნატეხი ( naṭexi ) , ნაწილი ( nac̣ili ) , ნაჭერი ( nač̣eri )
German: Stück (de) n
Greek: κομμάτι (el) n ( kommáti )
Haitian Creole: moso
Hebrew: חֵלֶק (he) m ( khélek )
Hindi: टुकड़ा m ( ṭukṛā ) , खंड (hi) m ( khaṇḍ ) , भाग (hi) m ( bhāg ) , हिस्सा (hi) m ( hissā )
Hungarian: darab (hu) , rész (hu) , -rész
Icelandic: hluti (is) m , stykki (is) n
Irish: píosa (ga) m , giota m , boim m ( literary )
Italian: pezzo (it) m , porzione (it) f , parte (it) f
Japanese: ( part ) 部分 (ja) ( ぶぶん, bubun ) , ( small part ) 一切れ ( ひときれ, hitokire ) , 一片 (ja) ( いっぺん, ippen ) , ( fish, meat ) 切り身 (ja) ( きりみ, kirimi )
Kazakh: кесек ( kesek ) , бөлік ( bölık ) , парша ( parşa )
Khmer: ដុំ (km) ( dom )
Korean: 조각 (ko) ( jogak ) , 부분(部分) (ko) ( bubun ) , 쪽 (ko) ( jjok )
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: پارچە ( parçe )
Kyrgyz: үзүм (ky) ( üzüm ) , кесек (ky) ( kesek ) , бөлүк (ky) ( bölük )
Ladin: tòch m
Lao: ຮູບສິລປະ ( hūp sin pa ) , ປ່ຽງ ( pīang ) , ຕ່ອນ ( tǭn )
Latin: pars (la) f , fragmentum n , frustum m , mica (la) f
Latvian: gabals (lv) m
Lithuanian: gabalas m , dalis (lt) f
Lombard: pezz (lmo) , péss
Macedonian: парче n ( parče ) , дел m ( del )
Malay: sekeping
Maltese: biċċa f
Maori: wāhanga
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: зүсэм (mn) ( züsem ) , хэрчим (mn) ( xerčim ) , нөхөөс (mn) ( nöxöös )
Norman: morcé m ( Jersey, Guernsey )
Norwegian:
Bokmål: stykke (no) n
Nynorsk: stykke n
Occitan: pèça (oc) f
Old English: styċċe
Pashto: ټوټه (ps) f ( ṭoṭa )
Persian: تکه (fa) ( tekke ) , پارچه (fa) ( pârče ) , قطعه (fa) ( qet'e )
Polish: kawałek (pl) m , część (pl) f , element (pl) m
Portuguese: peça (pt) f , pedaço (pt) m , parte (pt) f
Quechua: p'aki
Romani: kotor m
Romanian: bucată (ro)
Russian: кусо́к (ru) m ( kusók ) , часть (ru) f ( častʹ )
Sanskrit: खण्ड (sa) ( khaṇḍa )
Scottish Gaelic: bìdeag f , criomag f , mìr m , pìos m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: па́рче n , де̏о m , ко̀ма̄д m
Roman: párče (sh) n , dȅo (sh) m , kòmād (sh) m
Slovak: kus (sk) m , kúsok m
Slovene: kos (sl) m , del (sl) m
Southern Altai: кезек ( kezek ) , бӧлӱк ( bölük )
Spanish: pieza (es) f , pedazo (es) m , trozo (es) m
Swahili: kipande (sw) , gawo (sw)
Swedish: stycke (sv) n , bit (sv) c
Tajik: тикка ( tikka ) , порча ( porča ) , лӯнда ( lünda )
Tamil: துண்டு (ta) ( tuṇṭu )
Tarifit: awezwiz m
Tatar: кисәк (tt) ( kisäk )
Telugu: ముక్క (te) ( mukka )
Thai: อัน (th) ( an ) , ชิ้น (th) ( chín )
Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
Tok Pisin: hap
Turkish: parça (tr)
Turkmen: bölek (tk)
Tuvan: please add this translation if you can
Ukrainian: шмато́к m ( šmatók ) , кава́лок (uk) m ( kaválok ) , части́на (uk) f ( častýna ) , кусо́к m ( kusók ) , шмат m ( šmat )
Urdu: ٹکڑا m ( ṭukṛā ) , کھنڈ ( khaṇḍ )
Uyghur: پارچە ( parche )
Uzbek: parcha (uz) , boʻlak (uz)
Vietnamese: miếng (vi) , mảnh (vi) , mẩu (vi)
Welsh: darn (cy) m
Yiddish: שטיק f or n ( shtik )
single item belonging to a class of similar items
artistic creation
Chinese:
Mandarin: 作品 (zh) ( zuòpǐn )
Danish: stykke (da) n
Finnish: ( music ) kappale (fi) , biisi (fi) ; ( other ) teos (fi)
German: Stück (de) n
Hungarian: darab (hu) , műalkotás (hu)
Icelandic: verk (is) n , stykki (is) n
Irish: saothar m , dréacht m , píosa (ga) m
Italian: brano (it) m , pezzo (it) m
Japanese: 作品 (ja) ( さくひん, sakuhin )
Korean: 작품(作品) (ko) ( jakpum )
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: зохиол (mn) ( zoxiol ) , жүжиг (mn) ( žüžig )
Polish: dzieło (pl) n , praca (pl) f , utwór (pl) m ( chiefly literary work or musical composition ) , sztuka (pl) f ( dramatic work )
Portuguese: peça (pt) f
Russian: произведе́ние (ru) n ( proizvedénije ) , пье́са (ru) f ( pʹjésa ) ( music piece, play )
Spanish: pieza (es) f
Swedish: stycke (sv) n
Tagalog: tugtugin ( music )
article published in the press
shoddy or worthless object
baseball: pitch that has been hit but not well
sometimes derogatory: individual, person
castle; a fortified building
— see castle
rowing: structured practice row
Translations to be checked
See also
Verb
piece (third-person singular simple present pieces , present participle piecing , simple past and past participle pieced )
( transitive , usually with together ) To assemble (something real or figurative ).
These clues allowed us to piece together the solution to the mystery.
1655 , Thomas Fuller , edited by James Nichols , The Church History of Britain, , new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III) , London: for Thomas Tegg and Son , , published 1837 , →OCLC :His adversaries [ …] pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.
To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out .
to piece a garment
c. 1602 , William Shakespeare , “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio ), London: Isaac Iaggard , and Ed Blount , published 1623 , →OCLC , [Act III, scene i]:You have broke it, cousin: and , by my life , you shall make it whole again ; you shall piece it out with a piece of your performance
( slang ) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag .
1994 , William Upski Wimsatt , Bomb the Suburbs , revised second edition, Chicago: The Subway and Elevated Press Company, →ISBN , page 7 :“It didn't rain, so I decided to come piece with you. [ …] ” We never finished that piece.
2009 , Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground , page 40 :It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece ; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.
2009 , Scape Martinez, GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti , page 124 :It is often used to collect other writer's tags, and future plans for bombing and piecing .
Derived terms
Terms derived from piece (verb)
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French piece , from Vulgar Latin *pettia , from Gaulish *pettyā , from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis ( “ piece, portion ” ) .
Noun
piece f (plural pieces )
piece , bit , part
moment (duration of time)
1488 , Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac , page 75 :Grant piece dura celle meslee The battle lasted a long time
Descendants
References
piece on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)
Old French
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Late Latin pettia , from Gaulish *pettyā , from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis ( “ piece, portion ” ) .
Noun
piece oblique singular , f (oblique plural pieces , nominative singular piece , nominative plural pieces )
piece , bit , part
Descendants
Middle French: piece
Walloon: pîce
→ Middle English: pece , pese , pesse , peace , pease , peise , pice , pise , piece , piese , pecche
Polish
Pronunciation
IPA (key ) : /ˈpjɛ.t͡sɛ/
Rhymes: -ɛt͡sɛ
Syllabification: pie‧ce
Noun
piece m inan
nominative / accusative / vocative plural of piec