Gameplay

How to spell gameplay

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gameplay

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gameplay mean?

1. nounThe features and experience of playing a game, especially how its mechanics and controls work, as opposed to its visuals or plot.

Gameplay in a sentence

• The reviewer praised the smooth gameplay but criticised the dull story.

• The studio spent months refining the gameplay before launch.

Where does gameplay come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a modern English compound, joining the native words 'game' and 'play'. The first element 'game' comes from Old English 'gamen', meaning 'amusement, joy, or sport', a word shared with several other Germanic languages. The second element 'play' descends from Old English 'plegan', meaning 'to exercise, move briskly, or engage in activity'. The fused term 'gameplay' is a twentieth-century coinage that grew up alongside the video game industry, becoming common from the 1980s onward to describe how a game actually feels and functions when you play it, as distinct from its graphics or story. Because both parts are familiar everyday words, the only real spelling decision is whether to write it as one word, two words, or hyphenated; in modern usage the single solid form 'gameplay' has become the accepted standard.

How the word is built

• game (a structured contest or pastime)
• play (the act of playing)