piñata

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

noun

, plural pi·ña·tas [pin-, yah, -t, uh, z, pee-, nyah, -tahs].

1. (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.

piñata

/ ˌpɪnˈjata /

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of piñata¹

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; pine ¹, -eous

Word History and Origins

Origin of piñata¹

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

Example Sentences

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.

From 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.

From Time