piece of work
"piece-of-work" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“piece of work” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A product or manufactured article, especially an item of art or craft.
Corpus desk
Index EN-piece-of-work · piece of work · English
piece of work · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | piece of work |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “piece of work” in English
Rare enough to double-check
piece of work is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
piece of work has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: First use appears c. 1473. The idiomatic second sense came about due to Hamlet’s monologue. See cite from sense 1 below. The correct English form is piece of work, spelled P-I-E-C-E- -O-F- -W-O-R-K.
Definition
- 1A product or manufactured article, especially an item of art or craft.
- 2A person who has a strong and unusual personality, especially one with seriously unpleasant character flaws.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how piece of work appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty!
1996, David Ansen "The Killer And The Nun (film review)," Newsweek, 8 Jan., “Dead Man Walking” is a powerful and intelligent piece of work.
Etymology
First use appears c. 1473. The idiomatic second sense came about due to Hamlet’s monologue. See cite from sense 1 below.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.