Word.ws English Dictionary

pied piper

UK/paɪd ˈpaɪ.pə/

pied piper noun: that which draws many in its wake.

Noun

pied piper (plural pied pipers)

  1. That which draws many in its wake.

Proper noun capitalized: Pied Piper

the Pied Piper

  1. A folk tale or legend, dating back to the Middle Ages, about a ratcatcher in variegated attire, hired by the German town of Hamelin, who is not paid for his services and retaliates by luring away the local children by playing a flute.
  2. The flute-playing ratcatcher who is the protagonist and title character of this story.

Forms of pied piper

pluralpied pipers

Origin of pied piper

From the folk tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who led away the townsfolk's children in revenge for not being paid after ridding the town of rats.

Short for Pied Piper of Hamelin, from pied and piper.

Questions about pied piper

What does pied piper mean?
Pied piper means that which draws many in its wake.
What part of speech is pied piper?
Pied piper can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pied piper?
Pied piper is pronounced /paɪd ˈpaɪ.pə/ (UK).
What is the plural of pied piper?
The plural of pied piper is pied pipers.

Words near pied piper in the dictionary

  1. pied kingfisher
  2. pied kingfishers
  3. pied lapwing
  4. pied noir
  5. pied off
  6. pied piper
  7. pied pipers
  8. pied plover
  9. pied starling
  10. pied starlings
  11. pied wagtail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pied piper (page history and authors); Pied Piper (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: “pied piper.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pied_piper. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.