Plea

How to spell plea

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce plea

What does plea mean?

1. nounAn earnest or urgent request for something.
2. nounA defendant's formal answer to a criminal charge in court, such as guilty or not guilty.

Plea in a sentence

• The charity issued a desperate plea for winter donations.

• The accused entered a plea of not guilty at the hearing.

• Her plea for more time was ignored by the committee.

• His lawyer advised him to change his plea before the trial.

Where does plea come from?

Language of origin: French

Plea entered English in the early 1200s from Old French plai, plait, or plaid, which meant a lawsuit, a court case, or an agreement reached in court. That French word descended from the Latin placitum, literally 'a thing that has been pleased upon' or 'a decision agreed to', the neuter past participle of placere, meaning 'to please' or 'to be agreeable'. The legal sense came first in English, naming a party's formal statement in a court action, and from there the meaning broadened to any earnest request or appeal. The same Latin placere root sits behind the everyday words 'please', 'pleasure', and 'placid', which shows how a notion of pleasing softened over centuries into both a courtroom term and a heartfelt request. The short spelling is the main trap: the long 'ee' sound is written 'ea', so the word can be misheard as ending in a doubled e.

How the word is built

• plea (a single root noun from Old French plait/plai, with no prefix or suffix)