Piece

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /piːs/

Definitions

1. A segment or portion that can be removed from a whole
2. an individual item that belongs to a larger grouping or complete set
3. A fragment or part cut or broken off from a larger whole ; a single item that forms part of a larger group or collection

Etymology: The English word arrived with a sense of breakage built into it. It comes from Middle English "pece" and Old French "piece," which descend from Late Latin "pecia" or "petia," meaning a broken fragment or a parcel of land. Where that Latin word came from is unknown. One proposal links it to a Gaulish root that meant a portion or quota, and the same ancestor appears in Welsh "peth," meaning thing, and Irish "cuid," meaning part, though the connection remains uncertain. English already had a word for a fragment, "sticche" from Old English "styċċe," but French "piece" gradually displaced it. The old word survives only in the surname-like "styca," an Anglo-Saxon coin fraction, which shows how a common word for a portion once served as a unit of value.

Synonyms: portion, part, fragment, segment, slice

Antonyms: whole, entirety, completeness, total, unity