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:
“Brett and I love to be home. We’ve built an amazing life where our home is the centerpiece of our daily life. Neither one of us have wanderlust at this stage,” she wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
Still, Meta sees Muse as the centerpiece of its whole operation and has restructured the company around the division that houses it, called Meta Superintelligence Labs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
In a scene that became the centerpiece of the film’s teaser trailer, Holmes fixes Fielder with an unwavering stare.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Its centerpiece is Siri AI, the overhauled version of Apple’s assistant powered by Apple Intelligence, which the company is pitching as a more conversational helper than the original Siri.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
The centerpiece was a tall vase filled with exotic flowers of vivid, electric blue.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
This has been one of the centerpieces of her campaign.
From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2026
Groups of stakeholders including terminal operators, cruise lines and union representatives sat at large round tables with green table cloths and floral centerpieces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
Family offices are often the centerpieces of wealthy families’ financial lives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
A few centuries ago, pineapples could rack up as much as today’s equivalent of $8,000, and were available to rent as centerpieces for fancy dinner parties in Colonial America.
From Salon ● Mar. 2, 2024
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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
