masterpiece
UK/ˈmɑːstəˌpiːs//ˈmæstɚˌpis/
masterpiece noun: a piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career.
Noun
masterpiece (plural masterpieces)
- A piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career.
- The design, when finally developed, was a slight disappointment to Monsieur Deplis, who had suspected Icarus of being a fortress taken by Wallenstein in the Thirty Years' War, but he was more than satisfied with the execution of the work, which was acclaimed by all who had the privilege of seeing...1911, Saki, The Chronicles of Clovis
- A work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship.
- Masterpieces are not completed, they are abandoned.
- “‘Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece,’ he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the glass case. ‘Perhaps the artist was a little mad. […]’1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter XX, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, →OCLC, page 221
- A work created in order to qualify as a master craftsman and member of a guild.
masterpiece meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
masterpiece in Hindi
- piece of work that has been given much critical praise
- शाहकार śāhkār, शहकार śahkār, शाहपारा śāhpārā, शहपारा śahpārā
masterpiece in Tamil
- தலைசிறந்த படைப்பு, நூல்
masterpiece in Urdu
- شاہکار, شہ پارہ
masterpiece in Bengali
- অত্যন্ত উচ্চমানের শিল্পকর্ম, শ্রেষ্ঠ রচনা
More languagesFewer languages
- masterpiece in Malayalam
- മാസ്റ്റർപീസ്, അദ്വിതീയകൃതി, അപ്രതിമകൃതി, ഒരു ഗ്രന്ഥകാര പ്രകൃഷ്ടകൃതി
- masterpiece in Kannada
- ನಾಯಕ ಕೃತಿ, ಮೇರು ಕೃತಿ, ಉತ್ಕೃಷ್ಟ ಕೃತಿ, ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮ ರಚನೆ
- masterpiece in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ਾਹਕਾਰ śāhkār
- masterpiece in Gujarati
- માસ્ટરપીસ
- masterpiece in Nepali
- मास्टरपीस
- masterpiece in Tagalog
- likhang-guro, akdang-guro
- masterpiece in Arabic
- تُحْفَة tuḥfa, رَائِعَة rāʔiʕa
- masterpiece in Indonesian
- mahakarya
- masterpiece in Persian
- شاهکار šâh-kâr, شاهاثر šâh-asar
- masterpiece in Vietnamese
- kiệt tác
Examples of masterpiece in a sentence
- It would hardly be an overstatement to describe Drummond's next design as an outstanding British locomotive class, and possibly his masterpiece.1951 November, David R. Webb, “The Drummond 4-4-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 774:
- Betjeman was unmoved, describing it tersely as "no masterpiece" and noting that its lack of platform seating made it an "inhuman structure" which seemed to ignore passengers.2023 February 8, Greg Morse, “Crossing the border... by Sleeper”, in RAIL, number 976, page 45:
Synonyms of masterpiece
Antonyms
Forms of masterpiece
| plural | masterpieces |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | master-piece |
Origin of masterpiece
From master + piece, a calque of Dutch meesterstuk or German Meisterstück (“masterpiece”). Piecewise doublet of maestropiece and masterstick. Compare also journeyman's piece.
Words formed from masterpiece
Questions about masterpiece
- What does masterpiece mean?
- Masterpiece means a piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career.
- What is masterpiece in Hindi?
- Masterpiece in Hindi is शाहकार (śāhkār), शहकार (śahkār), शाहपारा (śāhpārā). See Masterpiece meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use masterpiece in a sentence?
- It would hardly be an overstatement to describe Drummond's next design as an outstanding British locomotive class, and possibly his masterpiece.
- What part of speech is masterpiece?
- Masterpiece is a noun.
- How do you pronounce masterpiece?
- Masterpiece is pronounced /ˈmæstɚˌpis/ (US).
- What is the plural of masterpiece?
- The plural of masterpiece is masterpieces.
Words near masterpiece in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: masterpiece (page history and authors); masterpiece (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); masterpiece (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Masterpiece (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); masterpiece (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); masterpiece (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸ਼ਾਹਕਾਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); masterpiece (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); masterpiece (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-masterpiece.ogg.
Cite this entry: “masterpiece.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/masterpiece. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.