piece

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a separate part of a whole

   an important piece of the evidence

2. 2
   noun

   an item that is an instance of some type

   I designed a new piece of equipment.

3. 3
   noun

   a distance

   it is down the road a piece

4. 4
   noun

   an artistic or literary composition

   They wrote an interesting piece on gender equality.

5. 5
   noun

   an instance of some kind

   it was a nice piece of work

6. 6
   noun

   a serving that has been cut from a larger portion

   a piece of pie

7. 7
   verb

   repair by adding pieces

   They pieced the china cup.

8. 8
   verb

   join during spinning

   piece the broken pieces of thread, slivers, and rovings

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.