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Particle vs Piece - What's the difference?

particle | piece |

As nouns the difference between particle and piece

is that particle is a very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something while piece is a part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.

As a verb piece is

to assemble (something real or figurative).

particle

Noun

(en noun)
  • A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something.
  • (linguistics, sensu lato) A part of speech which can not be declined, an adverb, preposition, conjunction or interjection
  • * 1844 , E. A. Andrews: First Lessions in Latin; or Introduction to Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar. (6th edition, Boston), p.91 ( at books.google)
  • 322. The parts of speech which are neither declined nor conjugated, are called by the general name of particles . 323. They are adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
  • * 1894 (2008), B. L. Gildersleeve & G. Lodge: Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar (reprint of the 3rd edition by Dover, 2008), p.9. ( at books.google)
  • The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.]
  • (linguistics, sensu stricto) A word that has a particular grammatical function but does not obviously belong to any particular part of speech, such as the word to in English infinitives or O as the vocative particle.
  • * {{quote-web
  • , date = 1965-06-04 , author = Shigeyuki Kuroda , title = Generative grammatical studies in the Japanese language , site = DSpace@MIT , url = http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/13006 , accessdate = 2014-02-24 , page = 38 }}
    In English there is no grammatical device to differentiate predicational judgments from nonpredicational descriptions. This distinction does cast a shadow on the grammatical sphere to some extent, but recognition of it must generally be made in semantic terms. It is maintained here that in Japanese, on the other hand, the distinction is grammatically realized through the use of the two particles wa and ga.
  • *
  • Traditional grammar typically recog-
    nises a number of further categories: for example, in his Reference Book of
    Terms in Traditional Grammar for Language Students'', Simpson (1982) posits
    two additional word-level categories which he refers to as ''Particle'', and
    ''Conjunction''. Particles include the italicised words in (58) below:
    (58) (a)      He put his hat ''on''
           (b)      If you pull too hard, the handle will come ''off''
           (c)      He was leaning too far over the side, and fell ''out''
           (d)      He went ''up
    to see the manager
  • (physics) Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle.
  • * 2011 , & Jeff Forshaw, The Quantum Universe , Allen Lane 2011, p. 55:
  • What, he asked himself, does quantum theory have to say about the familiar properties of particles such as position?
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=(Jeremy Bernstein) , title=A Palette of Particles , volume=100, issue=2, page=146 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=The physics of elementary particles' in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of ' particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * aspect particle * modal particle * particle accelerator * particle beam * particle board * particle physics * tachyonic particle

    piece

    English

    Alternative forms

    * peece (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.
  • A single item belonging to a class of similar items: as, for example, a piece of machinery, a piece of software.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}
  • (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.
  • A coin, especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency.
  • a sixpenny piece
  • An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, musical composition, literary work, etc.
  • An artillery gun.
  • (US, Canada, colloquial) (short for hairpiece); a toupee or wig, usually when worn by a man.
  • A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack.
  • * 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 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.
  • (US, colloquial) A gun.
  • (US, colloquial, vulgar) A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail
  • (US, colloquial, mildly, vulgar) (short for "piece of crap") a shoddy or worthless object, usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances.
  • (US, slang) A cannabis pipe.
  • (baseball) 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 got, and never used in the plural.
  • (dated, sometimes, derogatory) An individual; a person.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Thy mother was a piece of virtue.
  • * Coleridge
  • His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.
  • (obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.
  • (Spenser)
  • (US) A pacifier.
  • Synonyms

    * See also * See also

    Usage notes

    When used as a baseball term, the term is idiomatic 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".

    Derived terms

    * bits and pieces * piecemeal * piecen * piece of cake * piece of eight * piece of the action

    See also

    *

    See also

    * chunk * bit

    Verb

    (piec)
  • (transitive, usually, with together) To assemble (something real or figurative).
  • These clues allowed us to piece together the solution to the mystery.
  • * Fuller
  • His adversaries pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.
  • To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out .
  • to piece a garment
    (Shakespeare)
  • (slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.
  • * 2009 , Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground (page 40)
  • It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece ; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.
  • * 2009 , Scape Martinez, GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti (page 124)
  • It is often used to collect other writer's tags, and future plans for bombing and piecing .

    Derived terms

    * piece together * repiece * unpiece 1000 English basic words ----