piece

/piːs/

piece noun: a part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.

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.
- Near-synonyms: aspect, portion
- I’d like another piece of pie.
Synonyms:

component, part, aspect, portion
A single item belonging to a class of similar items.
- a piece of machinery
- a piece of software
One of the figures used in playing chess, specifically a higher-value figure as distinguished from a pawn; (by extension) those with which draughts, backgammon, and other similar board games are played.
- Pawns, unlike pieces, move only in one direction: forward.1959, Hans Kmoch, Pawn Power in Chess, section I
- It is not permitted to move a piece to a square occupied by a piece of the same colour. […] Consequently, in the initial position the white pieces and pawns are placed on the first and second ranks; the black pieces and pawns on the eighth and seventh ranks.2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, pages 4, 21
Synonyms:

game piece
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.
- period piece
- She played two beautiful pieces on the piano.
Synonyms:

composition, musical composition, musical piece, musical work, piece of music, work of music
An article published in the press.
- Today's paper has an interesting piece on medical research.
- No, I didn't read the piece on China's faceless masses, I was, I was checking out the lingerie ads.1979, Woody Allen, Manhattan, spoken by Isaac Davis (Woody Allen)
An artillery gun.
- […] 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.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
(US, colloquial) A gun.
- He's packin' a piece!
- I wanted peace, but now my piece is clearing out the block.2005, “Bloody War”, in Certified, performed by David Banner
(Canada, US, colloquial, short for hairpiece) A toupee or wig, especially when worn by a man.
- The announcer is wearing a new piece.
(Ireland, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal) A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack.
- 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.2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 46
(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.

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(US, slang) A cannabis pipe.
(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, derogatory, sometimes) An individual; a person.
- If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e., Philip Sidney], An Apologie for Poetrie. […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Henry Olney, […], published 1595, →OCLC; republished as Edward Arber...
- Thy mother was a piece of virtue.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
(obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.
- Then enteryng into league with Philip the French king, he receyued againe all the holdes and peeces which his father had loſt a little before, […]1569, Richard Grafton, “The Seuenth Age, and Seuenth Part of this Chronicle”, in A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume I, London: […] Henry Denham, […], for...
- the ranſack of that peece1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XIV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
(US) A pacifier; a dummy.

Synonyms:

binky, bink, bo-bo, comforter, dodie, dummy, nookie, paci, pippy, soother
(colloquial) A distance or amount.
- a far piece
- located a fair piece away from their camp
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.
- 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.2017, Matt Meyer, Déqui Kioni-Sadiki, Sekou Odinga, Look for Me in the Whirlwind

Verb

piece (third-person singular simple present pieces, present participle piecing, simple past and past participle pieced)

(transitive, usually) To assemble (something real or figurative).
- These clues allowed us to piece together the solution to the mystery.
- His adversaries […] pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out.
- to piece a garment
- 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 performancec. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
(slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.
- “It didn't rain, so I decided to come piece with you.[…]” We never finished that piece.1994, William Upski Wimsatt, Bomb the Suburbs, revised second edition, Chicago: The Subway and Elevated Press Company, →ISBN, page 7
- It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.2009, Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground, page 40
(dated, informal, intransitive, often, with-on, chiefly North Midland US) To eat small quantities of food between meals; to snack; to take small or intermittent bites at a food item.
- There he was, piecing on the ham.1941, Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.”, in A Curtain of Green, page 104
- Do not piece between meals.c. 1950, Kansas State Board of Health, Division of Maternal and Child Health Nutrition Service publication, "Proper food before the baby comes", State Library of Kansas, page 2
Synonyms:

nosh, nibble, eat, have, fret

piece meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

piece in Hindi

part of a larger whole: टुकड़ा ṭukṛā, खंड khaṇḍ, भाग bhāg, हिस्सा hissā
single item belonging to a class of similar items: भाग bhāg
chess: figure other than pawn; similar counter in other games: मुद्रा mudrā
small coin: मुद्रा mudrā

piece in Tamil

part of a larger whole: துண்டு tuṇṭu

piece in Marathi

piece, fragment, section: तुकडा tukḍā
a piece: खोड khoḍ

piece in Urdu

part of a larger whole: ٹُکْڑا ṭukṛā, کھَنْڈ khanḍ

More languagesFewer languages

piece in Bengali: টুকরা ṭukra, কেতা keta, তরফ toroph
piece in Telugu: ముక్క mukka
piece in Malayalam: കഷണം kaṣaṇaṁ, തുണ്ടം tuṇṭaṁ, തുണ്ട് tuṇṭŭ, കണ്ടം kaṇṭaṁ
piece in Kannada: ತುಂಡು tuṇḍu, ಚೂರು cūru
piece in Punjabi: نگ nag, ਨਗ nag
piece in Gujarati: કટકો kaṭko, મહોરું mahorũ, સોગટું sogṭũ, ટુકડો ṭukṛo
piece in Odia: ଗଡ଼ gaṛa
piece in Sanskrit: खण्ड khaṇḍa
piece in Sinhala: කඩ kaḍa
piece in Assamese: টুকুৰা tukura
piece in Nepali: गोटी goṭī
piece in Pashto: ټوټه ṭoṭa
piece in Tagalog: tugtugin
piece in Arabic: قِطْعَة qiṭʕa
piece in Malay: sekeping
piece in Thai: อัน an, ชิ้น chín
piece in Vietnamese: miếng, mảnh, mẩu, quân
piece in Myanmar: အပိုင်းအစ a.puing:a.ca., အပိုင်း a.puing:, အစ a.ca.

Examples of piece in a sentence

I've lost a piece of this jigsaw puzzle.
a useful piece of advice
"Squalled at me that she owned the business and that she wouldn't take any back talk from me and that the piece wasn't for sale.1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 156:
[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
Now, his pieces are in the collections of institutions like the Smithsonian American Art Museum and The Met, where they operate the way Frey always intended: as works of art.2026 May, Hannah Martin, “Fancy Baskets”, in Architectural Digest, volume 83, number 4, page 97:
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.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 116:

All 40 example sentences with piece

Synonyms of piece

component
part
aspect
portion
game piece
composition
musical composition
musical piece
musical work
piece of music

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of piece

Forms of piece

Noun
plural	pieces
alternative form (obsolete)	peece
Verb
third-person singular present	pieces
present participle	piecing
past participle	pieced
past	pieced

Past tense of piece: pieced

Plural of piece: pieces

Origin of piece

From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin pecia, petia (“broken piece, fragment; parcel of land”), of uncertain origin. Possibly ultimately from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion, quota”). Compare Welsh peth (“thing, stuff, junk”), Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid (“part, portion”). Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza, Italian pezza, Italian pezzo. Displaced native Middle English sticche, stucche (“piece, fragment”) from Old English styċċe (“piece, portion”), whence also English styca.

Phrases with piece

106 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with piece

31 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about piece

What does piece mean?: Piece means a part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.
What is piece in Hindi?: Piece in Hindi is टुकड़ा (ṭukṛā), खंड (khaṇḍ), भाग (bhāg). See Piece meaning in Hindi.
How do you use piece in a sentence?: I've lost a piece of this jigsaw puzzle.
What part of speech is piece?: Piece can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce piece?: Piece is pronounced /piːs/.
What is the plural of piece?: The plural of piece is pieces.

Words near piece in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-piece.ogg.

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