Player

How to spell player

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce player

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does player mean?

1. nounA person who takes part in a game, sport, or other activity.
2. nounA device or program that reproduces recorded sound, video, or other media.

Player in a sentence

• Each player on the team trained twice a week.

• She loaded the disc into the player and pressed start.

• The chess player studied the board for several minutes.

• The old cassette player still worked perfectly.

Where does player come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the native Old English verb plegian (also spelled plegan), which meant to exercise oneself, to frolic, or to busy oneself in activity, alongside the noun plega for sport, fighting, or brisk movement. By adding the agent ending -er, which English has long used to mean 'one who does a thing', the language formed a noun for a person engaged in play. The sense narrowed and widened over the centuries: it came to mean a performer on the stage, a person taking part in a game or sport, and a participant more generally, while in modern times it stretched to cover machines such as a record player that 'play' recorded sound. The spelling is gloriously regular, with the long 'a' of play kept intact before the -er, which is why almost no fluent adult stumbles over it. Its Germanic roots also tie it to related Dutch and Low German words for leaping and dancing about.

How the word is built

• play (to take part in a game or perform)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)