Meaning & use
jigsaw puzzle
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A picture cut into many small interlocking pieces that you fit back together to make the whole image.
Grammar: Countable: a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. You do a puzzle or put it together.
Patterns
- do a jigsaw puzzle
- a jigsaw puzzle of something
We spent the rainy afternoon working on a jigsaw puzzle of a mountain lake.
Grandpa keeps the corner pieces of the jigsaw puzzle in a small tray.
The toddler's first jigsaw puzzle had only six large wooden pieces.
nouncountablefigurative
A confusing problem or situation made of many separate parts that must be understood together before the whole picture appears.
Grammar: Used figuratively and usually with a: the case was a jigsaw puzzle.
Patterns
- a jigsaw puzzle of something
- piece together a jigsaw puzzle
Investigators described the fraud as a jigsaw puzzle with half its pieces missing.
Planning the move felt like a jigsaw puzzle of dates, boxes and bookings.
Word forms
| plural | jigsaw puzzles |
|---|
Common combinations
- do a jigsaw puzzle
- Every winter my parents do a jigsaw puzzle on the dining table.
- complete a jigsaw puzzle
- It took us a week to complete the jigsaw puzzle.
- missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle
- The witness's statement was the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
- 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle
- She received a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of Paris for her birthday.
- jigsaw puzzle pieces
- The jigsaw puzzle pieces were scattered all over the carpet.
Synonyms and how they differ
- puzzle
- Puzzle is a wider word covering crosswords, riddles and logic games, while jigsaw puzzle names only the interlocking picture kind.
- jigsaw
- Jigsaw is the usual short form in British English, though it can also mean a power saw.
- mosaic
- A mosaic is a finished picture made of small fixed pieces, not something you assemble as a game.
Word family
Commonly confused: jigsaw puzzle or jigsaw?
jigsaw puzzle vs jigsaw
A jigsaw can be a power tool with a thin blade for cutting curves in wood; the puzzle is made of cardboard or wood pieces.
Practice
The detective said the case was like a ____, with each clue fitting into the larger picture.
Choose one answer.
A jigsaw puzzle is built from many pieces that fit together, matching clues that combine into a whole. A maze is about finding a path, not fitting parts together.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “jigsaw puzzle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.