Magnum Opus

A masterpiece, magnum opus, or chef-d'œuvre (French for 'master of work'; pl chefs-d'œuvre; French: [ʃɛ.d‿œvʁ]) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship.

Historically, a "masterpiece" was a work of a very high standard produced to obtain membership of a guild or academy in various areas of the visual arts and crafts.

Etymology

The form masterstik is recorded in English or Scots in a set of Aberdeen guild regulations dated to 1579, whereas "masterpiece" is first found in 1605, already outside a guild context, in a Ben Jonson play.^[4] "Masterprize" was another early variant in English.^[5]

Things Fall Apart by Igbo author Chinua Achebe is often considered a literary masterpiece, and one of the greatest works of Nigerian literature.^[6][7][8]

In English, the term rapidly became used in a variety of contexts for an exceptionally good piece of creative work, and was "in early use, often applied to man as the 'masterpiece' of God or Nature".^[9]