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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pier.

A raised platform built from the shore out over water, supported on piles; used to secure, or provide access to shipping; a jetty.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pɪə/Received-Pronunciation/pɪː/British, Southern, Standard/pɪjə/British, Southern, Standard/pɪɹ/General-American
  1. A raised platform built from the shore out over water, supported on piles; used to secure, or provide access to shipping; a jetty.

    Your boat is docked at the pier.
  2. A similar structure, especially at a seaside resort, used to provide entertainment.

    There is a gaming arcade on the pier.
  3. A structure supporting the junction between two spans of a bridge.

  4. A rectangular pillar, or similar structure, that supports an arch, wall or roof, or the hinges of a gate.

  5. A long corridor-like building with multiple gates extending from an airport terminal.

Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English pere (“bridge pillar, breakwater”), from either Anglo-Norman pere (“stone”, from Latin petra) or Old French *piere (Old Northern French pire, from either Late Latin *petricus or pēra "satchel"); compare Medieval Latin pira.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.