a baked food having a filling of fruit, meat, pudding, etc., prepared in a pastry-lined pan or dish and often topped with a pastry crust.
apple pie; meat pie.
a layer cake with a filling of custard, cream jelly, or the like.
chocolate cream pie.
a total or whole that can be divided.
They want a bigger part of the profit pie.
an activity or affair.
He has his finger in the political pie too.
pie in the sky,
the illusory prospect of future benefits.
Political promises are often pie in the sky.
a state of perfect happiness; utopia.
to promise pie in the sky.
easy as pie, extremely easy or simple.
nice as pie, extremely well-behaved, agreeable, or the like.
The children were nice as pie.
a baked food consisting of a sweet or savoury filling in a pastry-lined dish, often covered with a pastry crust
to have an interest in or take part in some activity
to meddle or interfere
illusory hope or promise of some future good; false optimism
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English pi(e), pey; of obscure origin
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English pi(e), peie, from Old French, from Latin pīca, akin to pīcus “woodpecker”
First recorded in 1470–80; translation of Latin pīca “magpie”; (the allusion is obscure); cf. pica 1, pie 2
First recorded in 1855–60; from Hindi pāī “quarter, fourth part,” from Sanskrit pādikā; cf. pada ( def. ); see also pice ( def. )
A pie is a baked dessert with a pastry crust. If your favorite kind of pie is apple, you might order it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Most pie is sweet, but there are also meat and vegetable pies, often called "pot pies." Like dessert pies, these savory dishes are often topped with pastry. Other pies have a bottom crust and an open top, while some have both a top and bottom pastry crust. If something is described as "easy as pie," it's very easy — though it's arguable whether it's really all that easy to make a pie.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The best part about this pie is that it’s simple to assemble and ready in just 10 minutes.
From Salon • May 10, 2026
In the pie shop, two moms sport matching baby wraps, infants pressed to their chests.
From Slate • May 10, 2026
Now, though, it is free to resume its longtime quest to take a bigger slice of the Wall Street pie.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026
But as Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, notes, “corporate profits are just one piece of the economic pie, and S&P 500 earnings are a relatively narrow and partial measure.”
From Barron's • Apr. 21, 2026
He was holding the dish with the shepherd’s pie, serving spoon at the ready, even though Coal had barely dug into what he had.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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.
