piece

Pronunciation

• enPR: pēs, IPA ^(key): /piːs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: peace

Noun

Singular piece

Plural pieces

1. A piece is a part of something that can be or has been separated from it.

   The man cut a piece of meat and a piece of cake for dinner.

   I own a piece of land in the country.

2. A piece is one example of a class or set of things.

   He put a piece of wood on the fire.

   Can I have a piece of paper to write on?

3. A piece is something that is made by an artist.

   The piece of music was beautiful.

   I thought his earlier pieces were more creative than his more recent stuff.

4. In board games, a piece is an object that can be moved to mark your position.

   There are six types of chess pieces in the game of chess: the pawn, the knight, the bishop, the rook, the queen, and the king.

5. (taboo) (offensive) A piece is a woman.
6. (taboo) (offensive) Piece is sexual intercourse.

• 
  Chess pieces
• 
  A piece of cake
• 
  The broken pieces of a sand dollar

Related words

• piecemeal

Verb

Plain form piece

Third-person singular pieces

Past tense pieced

Past participle pieced

Present participle piecing

1. (transitive & intransitive) If you piece something together, you use bring together enough information to understand something.

   They gathered enough information to piece together the family history.

2. (transitive & intransitive) If you piece something together, you put the pieces together.

   The scientists moved their shop to an empty parking lot to piece together all the bones.