Playlist

How to spell playlist

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce playlist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does playlist mean?

1. nounA curated list of songs or media tracks arranged to be played in sequence.

Playlist in a sentence

• She built a relaxing playlist for the long drive home.

• The gym updated its workout playlist every month.

Where does playlist come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a modern English compound built from two very old native words. 'Play' descends from the Old English plegan, meaning 'to exercise, frolic, or perform', while 'list' comes from the Old English liste, which originally meant a strip or border and later, by the 1600s, came to mean a written series of names or items recorded one after another. The compound 'playlist' first appeared in the broadcasting world of the mid twentieth century, naming the fixed roster of songs a radio station scheduled to broadcast. With the arrival of digital music and streaming services it widened to mean any curated sequence of tracks a listener assembles. Because both halves are common everyday words joined without any hyphen or doubled letter, the spelling is refreshingly transparent.

How the word is built

• play (compound first element, from Old English plega)
• list (compound second element, from Old English liste: border, strip, roster)