centerpiece
Americannoun
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centerpieces
plural
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an ornamental object used in a central position, especially on the center of a dining-room table.
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the central or outstanding point or feature.
The centerpiece of the evening was a play put on by the employees.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of centerpiece
Explanation
The centerpiece of something is literally the piece that goes in the center — the centerpiece of a table setting might be a candle surrounded by roses. Centerpiece also refers to the most important part of something. Although it often refers to the decoration in the middle of a table, a centerpiece is the most important and noteworthy part of anything. The Thinker is the centerpiece of the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia. An indoor lagoon is the centerpiece of the Tonga Room in San Francisco. The right to vote became a centerpiece of the women’s rights movement in the late 1800’s. No matter what it is, a centerpiece should be impressive.
Vocabulary lists containing centerpiece
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.
See Examples For:
But under Steinem’s editorship, which lasted until the sale of the magazine in 1987, it became both a beacon and a lifeboat for many contemporary women—a centerpiece of feminism’s second wave.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
As violence was starting to subsume Costa Rica, in 2022, Rodrigo Chaves stepped into the presidency and made cracking down on crime the centerpiece of his administration.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
She’s the centerpiece of “9 to 5,” a movie about unionization and pushing back against workplace sexual harassment.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026
The centerpiece is the three minutes where Travis calmly narrates the plane crash interspersed with him drumming, amid flames, in a way that captures each emotional beat of what he went through.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
There were several simple armchairs around a square coffee table with a fake plant for a centerpiece.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Others became true centerpieces or gave me a new idea for how to bring people together.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
Family offices are often the centerpieces of wealthy families’ financial lives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Now Carroll is financially set for life, a bona fide MLB star, and one of the centerpieces of the World Series.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 31, 2023
She recently created centerpieces for a baby shower for 75 people.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2023
Portraits of Kim II Sung and Kim Jong II—the centerpieces of every classroom in North Korea— were nowhere to be found.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
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.
