Piazza

How to spell piazza

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce piazza

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does piazza mean?

1. nounAn open public square or marketplace, especially in an Italian town.

Piazza in a sentence

• Tourists gathered in the piazza to watch the street performers.

• The cafe set its tables out across the sunny piazza.

Where does piazza come from?

Language of origin: Italian

The word comes directly from Italian piazza, meaning a public square or open marketplace in a town. Italian inherited it from the Latin platea, which described a broad street or open space, and that Latin word in turn was borrowed from the Greek plateia (hodos), literally a 'broad way', from platys meaning 'wide' or 'flat'. The same Latin platea is the ancestor of several familiar relatives, including the French 'place', the Spanish 'plaza', and even the English word 'plaice' for the flat fish. English adopted piazza in the late 1500s, at first specifically for the grand open squares of Italian cities, and later, especially in older American usage, for a covered porch or veranda. The doubled 'z' and the silent feel of the unexpected vowel pairing are exactly what make the spelling a trap, since it preserves the Italian form rather than anglicising it.

How the word is built

• piazza (from Latin platea: broad street, open space)