Sometimes used in a particular sense to refer to any piece other than a pawn.

Any of the chessmen; a set of chess pieces. Sometimes non-pawns only, "pieces and pawns".

1. One of the chessmen or figures used to play the game—king, queen, rook, bishop, knight or pawn. Each piece type has its own rules of movement on the board. This is the definition used in the context of the rules of chess, for example the touched piece rule.

2. When annotating or discussing chess games, the term "piece" usually excludes pawns. It may be used collectively for all "non-pawns", for example "White's pieces are well posted". In some contexts, it may refer specifically to a minor piece, for example "I hung a piece" or "I sacrificed a piece for two pawns".