piece

A1 Topic:General Vocabulary

US /piːs/ UK /piːs/ See IPA manual

Homophones

peace /pis/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like peach /tʃ/ vs /s/

Freq #686

Meanings

1

noun
A part of something larger, or an amount broken or cut off.

Can I have a piece of your chocolate?
2

noun
A part cut from a larger amount of food.

She gave each child a piece of pie.
3

noun
A single work of art, music, or writing.

The newspaper published an interesting piece about climate change.
4

noun
A single item of a particular type.

We bought a new piece of furniture for the living room.
5

verb
To put separate parts together to make a whole.

The detective slowly pieced together what had happened that night.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

2 noun · a part cut from a larger... slice

4 noun · a single item of a... bit

5 verb · to put separate parts... patch

More chip chunk clip crumb crumbling cutting flakefleakfragment hunk lump

Word family

Forms piecedpiecespiecing

Related forms asunder bit broken chunk modicum peace

Appears in

Phrases (5)

See all

play a piece
to perform a musical composition

Verb + noun
compose a piece
to create an original musical composition

Verb + noun
perform a piece
to give a formal public performance of a musical or artistic work

Verb + noun
write a piece
to produce a piece of writing, such as an article or essay

Verb + noun
key piece
the most important or central element of something

Adjective + noun

Idioms (3)

See all

Proverbs (1)

See all

There is no such thing as bad sex
Matching variant: There's no such thing as a bad piece

Etymology

From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion, quota”). Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza, Italian pezza, Italian pezzo.

pece Middle English piece Old French petia la-lat *pettyā cel-gau *kʷezdis Proto-Celtic

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Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# piece

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A1
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /piːs/
**IPA (UK):** /piːs/
**Frequency rank:** 686

## Meanings
1. A part of something larger, or an amount broken or cut off.
2. A part cut from a larger amount of food.
3. A single work of art, music, or writing.
4. A single item of a particular type.
5. To put separate parts together to make a whole.

## Examples
- Can I have a piece of your chocolate?
- She gave each child a piece of pie.
- The newspaper published an interesting piece about climate change.
- We bought a new piece of furniture for the living room.
- The detective slowly pieced together what had happened that night.

## Synonyms
- bit
- chip
- chunk
- clip
- crumb
- crumbling
- cutting
- flake
- fleak
- fragment
- hunk
- lump

## Related Forms
- asunder
- bit
- broken
- chunk
- modicum
- peace

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: pece
- Root: piece
- Root: petia
- Root: *pettyā
- Root: *kʷezdis

## Etymology
From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion, quota”). Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza, Italian pezza, Italian pezzo.

## AI Etymology
Piece comes from Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion, quota”). Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza, Italian pezza, Italian pezzo. In present-day English it covers a part of something larger, or an amount broken or cut off, a part cut from a larger amount of food, and a single work of art, music, or writing. The wider family includes related forms such as asunder, bit, broken, chunk.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

markdown

piece

Meanings

Verb forms

Thesaurus

Appears in

Phrases (5)

Idioms (3)

Proverbs (1)

Etymology

Topics

External links

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