noun

pie

peye

noun

A baked dish with a pastry crust and a filling, sweet or savoury.

"She baked an apple pie for dessert."

"We had steak pie and chips for dinner."

A whole amount of something to be divided into shares.

"Each department wants a bigger slice of the budget pie."

A pie chart.

"The report showed spending as a pie broken into five categories."

How to Use Pie

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishA baked pastry dish, or figuratively a whole amount to be divided up.

Common mistake

In the UK "pie" usually implies savoury (meat pie); in the US it more often implies sweet (fruit pie).

UK vs US

British English leans savoury by default; American English leans sweet by default.

Common pairings

apple pie pie chart a slice of the pie easy as pie

Word Forms

pied past tense, pies plural, pies plural, pie plural, pies plural, pies plural, pies singular

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Fill the Gap

Can you complete this real example?

She baked an apple _____ for dessert.

Etymology

From Middle English pye, of uncertain origin — possibly linked to the magpie, since a savoury pie mixes several ingredients much like the bird was thought to collect miscellaneous items.

Rhymes for pie

die lie tie sie vie hie fie Mie Rie Xie Nie Wie

See all rhymes for pie →