piñata

[ pin-yah-tuh; Spanish pee-nyah-tah ]

noun,plural pi·ña·tas

[pin-yah-tuhz; Spanish pee-nyah-tahs]. /pɪnˈyɑ təz; Spanish piˈnyɑ tɑs/.

(in Mexico and Central America) colorful papier-mâché figure or cheerfully decorated crock filled with toys, candy, etc., and suspended from above, especially during Christmas or birthday festivities, so that children, who are blindfolded, may break it or knock it down with sticks and release the contents.

Origin of piñata

1885–90; <Spanish: literally, pot <Italian pignatta, probably derivative of dial. pigna pinecone (from the pot's shape) <Latin pīnea, noun use of feminine of pīneus of the pine tree; see pine¹, -eous

Words Nearby piñata

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use piñata in a sentence

In the aftermath, the magazine published a slew of stories on what elements tumbled out when uranium cracked like a particulate piñata, on the prospects for using atomic energy as a fuel source or a weapon, and so on.
We’re celebrating a century of Science News | Maria Temming | March 24, 2022 | Science News
I’d paid for a piñata over the phone, and she’d brought it to dinner so I wouldn’t have to trek half an hour to her store downtown.
The Quiet Ache of Children's Pandemic Birthdays | Katie Gutierrez | February 3, 2022 | Time

British Dictionary definitions for piñata

piñata

/ (ˌpɪnˈjata) /

noun

a papier-mâché party decoration filled with sweets, hung up during parties, and struck with a stick until it breaks open

Origin of piñata

Spanish, from Italian pignatta, probably from dialect pigna, from Latin pinea pine cone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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