set piece

noun

plural set pieces

1

a

: a composition (as in literature, art, or music) executed in a fixed or ideal form often with studied artistry and brilliant effect

b

: a scene, depiction, speech, or event that is obviously designed to have an imposing effect

2

: a realistic piece of stage scenery standing by itself

3

: a precisely planned and conducted military operation

an offensive set piece that caught the enemy off guard

4

sports : a carefully planned sequence of movements performed by the members of a team (as in soccer)

A set piece can be used on either a direct or indirect type of [free] kick, providing one of the few times during the game that a team can execute something that it may have spent hours practicing.

—Doug Roberson

set-piece

ˈset-ˌpēs 

adjective

Examples of set piece in a Sentence

a movie with some lovely set pieces

She scored with a set piece.

Recent Examples on the Web

The movie’s true set pieces are the professorial villain’s ostentatious monologues using fast food, musical plagiarism, and Monopoly as metaphors to point out how modern religions are just conspicuous iterations of what’s come before. —Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 8 Nov. 2024

There’s a futuristic-looking nesting tea set designed by Peter Saenger in 1990 that became a set piece on Star Trek: The Next Generation. —Anna Hezel, Curbed, 1 Nov. 2024

Like Annabelle, The Nun features a lot of repetitive padding between scares, but here, the set pieces are significantly more chilling and visually creative. —Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 28 Oct. 2024

Modern Warfare would become known for its bombastic, contemporary stories with Michael Bay-sized set pieces and bravado, with larger than life characters defined by thick accents, bushy mustaches, and cool masks. —Cade Onder, Rolling Stone, 25 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1834, in the meaning defined at sense 1a