Word.ws English Dictionary

conversation pieces

conversation pieces is the plural of conversation piece.

Meaning of conversation piece

Noun

conversation piece (plural conversation pieces)

  1. An unusual item, such as a painting, or a tabletop knick-knack which encourages comment from visitors, and so helps to break the ice.
    • I don't think much of the sculpture in their front yard, but I guess it makes a good conversation piece.
  2. (painting) A painting of a group of people engaged in conversation or some other activity, popular in the 18th century.
    • Hogarth's enlargement of painting's scope was based on the conversation piece, which was to prove one of the most flexible and adaptable of genres. The idea of an informal group was not in itself new, nor the invention of Hogarth alone.1971, William Gaunt, The Great Century of British Painting: Hogarth to Turner

Questions about conversation pieces

What is conversation pieces the plural of?
Conversation pieces is the plural of conversation piece.

Words near conversation pieces in the dictionary

  1. conversation heart
  2. conversation hearts
  3. conversation lozenge
  4. conversation lozenges
  5. conversation piece
  6. conversation pieces
  7. conversation pit
  8. conversation pits
  9. conversation set
  10. conversation sets
  11. conversation stopper

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: conversation pieces (page history and authors); conversation piece (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “conversation pieces.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/conversation_pieces. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.