Use piece for a countable part or item, especially with uncountable nouns: a piece of advice, a piece of paper, a piece of cake. Use part when the portion belongs to a machine, body, plan, or system and its role matters.
Use piece for a countable part or item, especially with uncountable nouns: a piece of advice, a piece of paper, a piece of cake. Use part when the portion belongs to a machine, body, plan, or system and its role matters.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| She gave me an advice. | She gave me a piece of advice. |
| I need a pieces of paper. | I need a piece of paper. |
| The mechanic replaced a piece of the engine. | The mechanic replaced a part of the engine. |
Use piece when the work is one complete creation but the exact medium is flexible: a piano piece, an opinion piece, a sculpture piece. Use song, article, painting, or poem when the medium matters more.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| She published a music piece on the radio. | She released a song on the radio. |
| The newspaper printed his piece at climate policy. | The newspaper printed his piece on climate policy. |
| The museum hung the piece in the floor. | The museum hung the piece on the wall. |
Use piece for chessmen, checkers, counters, and similar movable objects. In chess, piece often excludes pawns in technical talk, but everyday speech may include all movable chessmen.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| Move your piece to the next board. | Move your piece to the next square. |
| The piece were captured. | The piece was captured. |
| In chess notation, every pawn is a major piece. | In chess notation, rooks and queens are major pieces. |
Use piece for coins in set expressions such as a fifty-cent piece and a piece of eight, or for goods sold by the piece. In ordinary payment, coin is usually clearer.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| Can you lend me a piece for the parking meter? | Can you lend me a coin for the parking meter? |
| The apples cost two dollars by piece. | The apples cost two dollars apiece. |
| She found a fifty-dollar piece in her wallet. | She found a fifty-dollar bill in her wallet. |
Use piece this way mainly in informal or regional American English, especially in phrases like down the road a piece. It sounds homespun, so a little way or a while is safer in formal writing.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The office is piece down the road. | The office is a piece down the road. |
| The airport is a piece from here, according to the report. | The airport is some distance from here, according to the report. |
| Wait piece and call again. | Wait a piece and call again. |
Use piece for a gun only when the slang tone fits dialogue, reporting, or analysis. It is more street-colored than gun, less technical than firearm, and older-sounding than strap or gat.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| Airport security found a piece in his bag. | Airport security found a firearm in his bag. |
| The manual explains how to clean your piece safely. | The manual explains how to clean your firearm safely. |
| He carried a piece of gun. | He carried a piece. |
Use piece in this sense only when quoting, explaining, or writing deliberately crude dialogue. It is shorter than piece of ass, more dehumanizing than hottie, and less explicit than piece of ass while carrying the same objectifying force.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The host introduced her as a nice piece. | The host introduced her as an impressive guest. |
| Piece is a polite word for an attractive woman. | Piece is a vulgar, objectifying word for an attractive person. |
| He complimented his colleague by calling her a piece. | He insulted his colleague by calling her a piece. |
Use piece mostly with together or with an object that is being patched or reconstructed: piece together the clues, piece a quilt. Use cut, divide, or slice for separating something into parts.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| She pieced the cake into six slices. | She cut the cake into six slices. |
| They are pieceing together the evidence. | They are piecing together the evidence. |
| He pieced apart the old radio. | He took apart the old radio. |
Use piece for countable parts and items, but choose a narrower word when precision matters: part for machine components, coin for money, firearm for formal weapon writing, and cut for dividing something.
A piece of advice is often shortened wrongly to an advice, and the verb piece is confused with cut in sentences like piece the cake.
From Middle English pece, from Old French piece, from Vulgar Latin pettia, probably of Gaulish origin and related to Welsh peth, meaning a thing. The verb developed from the noun in the sense of mending by adding pieces.