different between piece vs point

English

Alternative forms

• peece (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”); doublet of English fit, fytte, fytt (“musical piece, chapter”), Icelandic fit (“web”), German Fitze (“skein”), from Old High German *fitjâ. Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza.

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?s, IPA^(key): /pi?s/
• Rhymes: -i?s
• Homophone: peace

Noun

piece (plural pieces)

1. A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.
2. A single item belonging to a class of similar items
3. (chess) One of the figures used in playing chess, specifically a higher-value figure as distinguished from a pawn; by extension, a similar counter etc. in other games.
   • 1959, Hans Kmoch, Pawn Power in Chess, I:

     Pawns, unlike pieces, move only in one direction: forward.

4. A coin, especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency.

   a sixpenny piece

5. An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, musical composition, literary work, etc.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:musical composition

6. An article published in the press.
7. (military) An artillery gun.
   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 55,^[1]

     […] all our Ammunition was spent. Those of us who had Money made Slugs of it; their next Shift was to take the middle Screws out of their Guns, and charge their Pieces with them.

8. (US, colloquial) A gun.
9. (US, Canada, colloquial, short for hairpiece) A toupee or wig, especially when worn by a man.

10. (Scotland, Ireland, Britain, US, dialectal) A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack.
    • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 46:

      My grannie came and gived them all a piece and jam and cups of water then I was to bring them back out to the street and play a game.

11. (US, colloquial, vulgar) A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail.

12. (US, colloquial, mildly vulgar, short for piece of crap/piece of shit) A shoddy or worthless object (usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances).

13. (US, slang) A cannabis pipe.
14. (baseball, uncountable) Used to describe a pitch that has been hit but not well, usually either being caught by the opposing team or going foul. Usually used in the past tense with get.

15. (dated, sometimes derogatory) An individual; a person.
    • c. 1579, Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poesy

      If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.

    • 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aid to Reflection

      His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.

16. (obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

17. (US) A pacifier; a dummy.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pacifier

18. (colloquial) A distance.

19. (rowing) A structured practice row, often used for performance evaluation.

20. An amount of work to be done at one time; a unit of piece work.

Usage notes

When used as a baseball term, the term is figurative in that the baseball is almost never broken into pieces. It is rare in modern baseball for the cover of a baseball to even partially tear loose. In professional baseball, several new, not previously played baseballs are used in each game.

It could be argued that the phrase was never meant (not even metaphorically) to refer to breaking the ball into pieces, and that "get a piece of the ball" means the bat contacts only a small area of the ball - in other words, that the ball is hit off-center. In that case "get" would mean "succeed in hitting", not "obtain".

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:piece

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: pisi
• ? Finnish: biisi
• ? Japanese: ??? (p?su)

Translations

See also

• chunk
• bit
• peace

Verb

piece (third-person singular simple present pieces, present participle piecing, simple past and past participle pieced)

1. (transitive, usually with together) To assemble (something real or figurative).

   • His adversaries […] pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.

2. To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out.
3. (slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.

Derived terms

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French piece, from Vulgar Latin *pettia, from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”).

Noun

piece f (plural pieces)

1. piece, bit, part
2. moment (duration of time)

Descendants

• French: pièce
  • ? Danish: pjece
  • ? Northern Kurdish: piyes
  • ? Norwegian:

    Norwegian Bokmål: piece

  • ? Romanian: pies?
  • ? Russian: ?????? (p?jésa)
    • ? Kazakh: ????? (p?esa)
  • ? Swedish: pjäs
  • ? Yiddish: ??????? (pyese)
• Norman: pièche (Jersey)

References

• piece on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Old French

Alternative forms

• pece

Etymology

From Late Latin pettia, from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”).

Noun

piece f (oblique plural pieces, nominative singular piece, nominative plural pieces)

1. piece, bit, part
   • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     Que del hiaume une piece tranche.

     It cuts a piece off his helmet

Descendants

• Middle French: piece
  • French: pièce
    • ? Danish: pjece
    • ? Northern Kurdish: piyes
    • ? Norwegian:

      Norwegian Bokmål: piece

    • ? Romanian: pies?
    • ? Russian: ?????? (p?jésa)
      • ? Kazakh: ????? (p?esa)
    • ? Swedish: pjäs
    • ? Yiddish: ??????? (pyese)
  • Norman: pièche (Jersey)
• Walloon: pîce
• ? Middle English: pece, pese, pesse, peace, pease, peise, pice, pise, piece, piese, pecche
  • English: piece
    • Sranan Tongo: pisi
    • ? Finnish: biisi
    • ? Japanese: ??? (p?su)
  • Yola: peece
  • ? Middle Irish: pissa
    • Irish: píosa
  • ? Scottish Gaelic: pìos

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??.t?s?/

Noun

piece m inan

1. inflection of piec:
   1. nominative plural
   2. accusative plural
   3. vocative plural

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) enPR: point, IPA^(key): /p??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt

Etymology 1

From Middle English point, from Old French point m (“dot; minute amount”), from Latin p?nctum (“a hole punched in; a point, puncture”), substantive use of p?nctus m, perfect passive participle of pung? (“I prick, punch”); alternatively, from Old French pointe f (“sharp tip”), from Latin p?ncta f (past participle). Displaced native Middle English ord (“point”), from Old English ord (“point”). Doublet of pointe, punctum, punt, and punto.

Noun

point (plural points)

1. A discrete division of something.
   1. An individual element in a larger whole; a particular detail, thought, or quality. [from 13th c.]

   2. A particular moment in an event or occurrence; a juncture. [from 13th c.]

   3. (archaic) Condition, state. [from 13th c.]

   4. A topic of discussion or debate; a proposition. [from 14th c.]

   5. A focus of conversation or consideration; the main idea.

   6. A purpose or objective, which makes something meaningful. [from 14th c.]

   7. (obsolete) The smallest quantity of something; a jot, a whit. [14th-17th c.]
   8. (obsolete) A tiny amount of time; a moment. [14th-17th c.]
      • 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum

        When time's first point begun / Made he all souls.|title=Of the Soule of Man and the Immortalitie Thereof

   9. A specific location or place, seen as a spatial position. [from 14th c.]

   10. (mathematics, sciences) A zero-dimensional mathematical object representing a location in one or more dimensions; something considered to have position but no magnitude or direction. [from 14th c.]
   11. A full stop or other terminal punctuation mark. [from 14th c.]
   12. (music) A dot or mark used to designate certain tones or time. In ancient music, it distinguished or characterized certain tones or styles (points of perfection, of augmentation, etc.). In modern music, it is placed on the right of a note to raise its value, or prolong its time, by one half.
   13. (by extension) A note; a tune.
   14. A distinguishing quality or characteristic. [from 15th c.]

   15. (in the plural, dated) The chief or excellent features.

       the points of a horse

   16. Something tiny, as a pinprick; a very small mark. [from 15th c.]

   17. (now only in phrases) A tenth; formerly also a twelfth. [from 17th c.]

   18. Each of the marks or strokes written above letters, especially in Semitic languages, to indicate vowels, stress etc. [from 17th c.]
   19. (sports, video games, board games) A unit of scoring in a game or competition. [from 18th c.]

   20. (mathematics) A decimal point (now especially when reading decimal fractions aloud). [from 18th c.]

   21. (economics) A unit used to express differences in prices of stocks and shares. [from 19th c.]
   22. (typography) a unit of measure equal to 1/12 of a pica, or approximately 1/72 of an inch (exactly 1/72 of an inch in the digital era). [from 19th c.]
   23. (Britain) An electric power socket. [from 20th c.]
   24. (navigation, nautical) A unit of bearing equal to one thirty-second of a circle, i.e. 11.25°.

   25. (Britain) A unit of measure for rain, equal to 0.254 mm or 0.01 of an inch.
2. A sharp extremity.
   1. The sharp tip of an object. [from 14th c.]

   2. Any projecting extremity of an object. [from 14th c.]
   3. An object which has a sharp or tapering tip. [from 14th c.]

   4. (backgammon) Each of the twelve triangular positions in either table of a backgammon board, on which the stones are played. [from 15th c.]
   5. A peninsula or promontory. [from 15th c.]
   6. The position at the front or vanguard of an advancing force. [from 16th c.]
      1. (by extension) An operational or public leadership position in a risky endeavor.
   7. Each of the main directions on a compass, usually considered to be 32 in number; a direction. [from 16th c.]
   8. (nautical) The difference between two points of the compass.

   9. Pointedness of speech or writing; a penetrating or decisive quality of expression. [from 17th c.]
   10. (rail transport, Britain, in the plural) A railroad switch. [from 19th c.]
   11. (usually in the plural) An area of contrasting colour on an animal, especially a dog; a marking. [from 19th c.]

   12. A tine or snag of an antler.
   13. (fencing) A movement executed with the sabre or foil.

3. (heraldry) One of the several different parts of the escutcheon.
4. (nautical) A short piece of cordage used in reefing sails.
5. (historical) A string or lace used to tie together certain garments.
6. Lace worked by the needle.

7. (US, slang, dated) An item of private information; a hint; a tip; a pointer.
8. The attitude assumed by a pointer dog when he finds game.

9. (falconry) The perpendicular rising of a hawk over the place where its prey has gone into cover.
10. The act of pointing, as of the foot downward in certain dance positions.
11. The gesture of extending the index finger in a direction in order to indicate something.
    • 2005, Marc Marschark, Patricia Elizabeth Spencer, Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language, and education

      […] DCDP children are exposed to more points and gesturelike signs in their linguistic environment […]

12. (medicine, obsolete) A vaccine point.
13. In various sports, a position of a certain player, or, by extension, the player occupying that position.
    1. (cricket) A fielding position square of the wicket on the off side, between gully and cover. [from 19th c.]
    2. (lacrosse, ice hockey) The position of the player of each side who stands a short distance in front of the goalkeeper.
    3. (baseball) The position of the pitcher and catcher.
    4. (hunting) A spot to which a straight run is made; hence, a straight run from point to point; a cross-country run.

Synonyms

• (location or place): location, place, position, spot
• (in geometry): ord
• (particular moment in an event or occurrence): moment, ord, time
• (sharp tip): end, ord, tip
• (arithmetic symbol): spot, decimal point (name of the symbol; not used when reading decimal fractions aloud)
• (opinion): opinion, point of view, view, viewpoint
• (unit of measure of success or failure): mark (in a competition)
• (color of extremities of an animal):

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: poin
• ? Japanese: ???? (pointo)
• ? Korean: ??? (pointeu)

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take for the use of point with these verbs

References

• point on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English pointen, poynten, from Old French pointier, pointer, poynter, from Medieval Latin punctare, p?nctu?re, from Latin p?nctum.

Verb

point (third-person singular simple present points, present participle pointing, simple past and past participle pointed)

1. (intransitive) To extend the index finger in the direction of something in order to show where it is or to draw attention to it.
   • Point at the tattered coat and ragged shoe.

2. (intransitive) To draw attention to something or indicate a direction.

3. (intransitive) To face in a particular direction.
4. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To direct toward an object; to aim.
   • 1853, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers (volume 11, page 267)

     Mr. Fitzsimons pointed my attention to an outside car on which was written, "Take warning," or something of that kind, and he pointed that out to me, and drew my attention to it, as a thing likely to intimidate […]

5. To give a point to; to sharpen; to cut, forge, grind, or file to an acute end.

6. (intransitive) To indicate a probability of something.
7. (transitive, intransitive, masonry) To repair mortar.
8. (transitive, masonry) To fill up and finish the joints of (a wall), by introducing additional cement or mortar, and bringing it to a smooth surface.
9. (stone-cutting) To cut, as a surface, with a pointed tool.
10. (transitive) To direct or encourage (someone) in a particular direction.
11. (transitive, mathematics) To separate an integer from a decimal with a decimal point.
12. (transitive) To mark with diacritics.
13. (dated) To supply with punctuation marks; to punctuate.

14. (transitive, computing) To direct the central processing unit to seek information at a certain location in memory.
15. (transitive, Internet) To direct requests sent to a domain name to the IP address corresponding to that domain name.
16. (intransitive, nautical) To sail close to the wind.

17. (intransitive, hunting) To indicate the presence of game by a fixed and steady look, as certain hunting dogs do.
    • 1713, John Gay, The Rural Sports

      He treads with caution, and he points with fear.

18. (medicine, of an abscess) To approximate to the surface; to head.
19. (dated) To give point to (something said or done); to give particular prominence or force to.
    • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 85:

      ‘Oh, it is the great defect in our Indian character!’ – and, as if to point his criticism, the lights of the Civil Station appeared on a rise to the right.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English pointen, poynten, by apheresis of apointen, appointen, appoynten. See appoint.

Verb

point (third-person singular simple present points, present participle pointing, simple past and past participle pointed)

1. (obsolete) To appoint.

References

Further reading

• point in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• point in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Pinto, opt in, opt-in, pinot, pinto, piton, potin

Danish

Etymology

From French point, from Latin p?nctum, the neuter of the participle p?nctus (“pointed”). The Latin word is also borrowed to Danish punkt (“dot”) and punktum (“full stop”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [p?o???]

Noun

point

1. a point (in a game)

Declension

See also

• punkt
• pointe
• pointere

Further reading

• “point” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pw??/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): [pw????]
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophones: poing, poings, points

Etymology 1

From Middle French poinct (with orthography modified to reflect the Latin etymology), from Old French point, from Latin punctum.

Noun

point m (plural points)

1. point (small mark)
2. (sports, games) point
3. full stop, period (punctuation mark)
4. (knitting) stitch pattern

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Danish: point
• Norwegian Bokmål: poeng

Adverb

point

1. (literary, dialectal, usually with "ne") not

   Synonym: pas (contemporary French)

Related terms

• appointer
• pointe
• poindre
• poignant
• poinçon

Etymology 2

From Old French point, from Latin punctus.

Verb

point m (feminine singular pointe, masculine plural points, feminine plural pointes)

1. past participle of poindre

Etymology 3

From Latin pungit.

Verb

point

1. third-person singular present indicative of poindre

Anagrams

• piton

Further reading

• “point” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Manx

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

point (verbal noun pointeil, past participle pointit)

1. appoint

Mutation

Norman

Etymology

From Old French point, from Latin punctum.

Noun

point m (plural points)

1. (Jersey) full stop, period (punctuation mark)

Derived terms

• point d'excliamâtion (“exclamation mark”)
• point d'tchestchionn'nie (“question mark”)
• point virgule (“semicolon”)

Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin punctum.

Noun

point m (oblique plural poinz or pointz, nominative singular poinz or pointz, nominative plural point)

1. a sting; a prick
2. moment; time
3. (on a die) dot
4. small amount

Adverb

point

1. a little
2. (with ne) not (indicates negation)

Descendants

• Middle French: poinct
  • French: point

Etymology 2

From Latin punctus.

Verb

point

1. past participle of poindre

Descendants

• Dutch: pointeren
• English: point
• Middle French: poinct
  • French: point
    • Norwegian Bokmål: poeng

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pw?nt/

Noun

point f pl

1. genitive plural of pointa

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?põj?.t??(i)/

Noun

point m (plural points)

1. (Brazil, slang) a location where members of a group usually meet