Play

How to spell play

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce play

What does play mean?

1. verbTo engage in activity for enjoyment, to take part in a game or sport, or to perform on a musical instrument.
2. nounA dramatic work written for performance by actors on a stage.

Play in a sentence

• verb

  The children love to play in the garden after school.

• noun

  The local theatre is staging a new play about the war.

• verb

  She learned to play the piano during the long winter evenings.

• noun

  He wrote a three-act play that opened to good reviews.

Where does play come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends directly from Old English, where the verb plegian (also spelled plegan) meant to move briskly, to exercise, or to busy oneself, and the related noun plega meant brisk movement, recreation, or a game. It is a native Germanic word, related to the Old Saxon plegan and the Middle Dutch pleien, meaning to leap for joy or to dance. The earliest senses centred on lively physical motion rather than amusement, and over the medieval period the meaning broadened to cover games, sport, and light-hearted activity. By the time of Middle English it had also taken on the sense of performing music and acting a part on stage, which gave rise to the noun meaning a staged drama. Because it is such an old, plain Germanic word, the spelling stayed short and regular, and the only mild trap is remembering that the long vowel sound is written with the letters 'ay'.

How the word is built

• play (whole word, from Old English plega: brisk movement, exercise, game); no prefix or suffix