rhizoverbBeta
DictionaryRoot: piece
Old French

piece

piece or portion

Forms

  • piece
  • pièce — The modern French spelling.

Origin

From a medieval Latin form often traced to a Celtic source; the deeper origin is uncertain.

Note

The sense of a separate portion also allowed piece to mean an individual coin or work.

2 / 3
noun / verb

piece

PEES/piːs/

A portion or individual unit of something.

The triangular piece of pie matches the wedge missing from the whole.

A single triangular piece removed from a round pie sits beside the whole pie with matching missing wedge, clean readable separated part.
Etymology
pieceOld Frenchpiece or portion

Old French piece meant a bit or portion. English first used it for a fixed amount or measure, then also for a fragment of an object—the selected sense.

In context

Townsends6:51
holes worn in it so we're just going to stitch it back together and we need to make sure that we stitch it to the right part there is a piece inside the shoe called a welt
The Work Of The Cobbler

More examples

  • The pianist plays a short piece by Mozart.
  • Each player starts with sixteen chess pieces.
  • We piece the torn map together with tape.

Forms

piece · pieces · pieced · piecing

Similar words

part
A general division of a whole, not necessarily detached.
portion
Emphasizes an amount or share, especially of food.
item
Emphasizes one separate thing in a collection or list.