apiece
Americanadverb
adverb
Etymology
Origin of apiece
First recorded in 1425–75, apiece is from late Middle English a pease. See a 2, piece
Explanation
The adverb apiece means "for each" or "to each." If your grandmother gives you and your cousins ten dollars apiece, she hands each of you a ten dollar bill. When you sell cookies at a bake sale for a dollar apiece, every individual cookie costs one dollar. And if two competing baseball teams have eleven wins apiece, it means that they're tied for the season so far — they've each won eleven games. Apiece, first used in the 1500s, was a contraction of a pece, which was almost always used to talk about coins or items for sale.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It will continue to work, he predicts, because someday Bitcoin will be $10 million apiece.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
The online retailer offered 280 million shares on the market at HK$48.56 apiece, Shein said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, below the maximum announced offer price of HK$49.50.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
Robinson and Tongue took eight wickets apiece, while Archer and Atkinson improved after a rusty first innings when they struggled to adapt following a month playing in The Hundred.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
From Bare’s farm, the company wanted 463 acres at $48,000 apiece.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
But she said her chi’ren got two year apiece in school, and it ain’t holped them a bit in the mill.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
