masterpiece

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a work of outstanding skill, creative achievement, or cultural significance that represents the highest expression of its maker's abilities or of a particular tradition, medium, or period; originating in the guild system of medieval and Renaissance Europe, where a masterpiece was the work a journeyman craftsman submitted to his guild for assessment as proof of his readiness to practise independently as a master, the term has expanded to designate any supreme achievement in art, literature, music, or craft; calling something a masterpiece is to place it at the apex of a hierarchy of quality and to claim that it sets a standard by which other works in its genre should be judged