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Contents
place definition
Overview
This page has 68 definitions of place with English translations in 9 languages. Place is a noun and verb. Examples of how to use place in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .
English place definition
Alternative forms
- pleace (some English dialects: 18th–19th centuries; Scots: until the 17th century)
Pronunciation
- enPR: plās, IPA(key): /pleɪs/, [pl̥eɪs]
Audio (US) (file) Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪs
- Homophone: plaice
Etymology 1
From Middle English place, conflation of Old English plæse, plætse, plæċe (“place, an open space, street”) and Old French place (“place, an open space”), both from Latin platea (“plaza, wide street”), from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa), shortening of πλατεῖα ὁδός (plateîa hodós, “broad way”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“to spread”), extended form of *pleh₂- (“flat”). Displaced native Old English stōw. Compare also English pleck (“plot of ground”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot, location”), Dutch plek (“place, spot, patch”). Doublet of piatza, piazza, and plaza.
Noun
place (countable and uncountable, plural places)
- (physical) An area; somewhere within an area.
- An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
- c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iv]:
- Ay, sir, the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boys in the market-place
- (often in street names or addresses) A street, sometimes but not always surrounding a public place, square, or plaza of the same name.
- They live at Westminster Place.
- An inhabited area: a village, town, or city.
- Any area of the earth: a region.
- He is going back to his native place on vacation.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
- From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
- The area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit.
- We asked the restaurant to give us a table with three places.
- The area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms.
- 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, OCLC 999756093:
- My Lady Dedlock has been down at what she calls, in familiar conversation, her "place" in Lincolnshire.
- Do you want to come over to my place later?
- An area of the body, especially the skin.
- Which place hurts the most?
- (euphemistic slang) An area to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
- 1901, John Stephen Farmer & al., Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, Vol. V, page 220:
- Place,... (2) a jakes, or house of ease.
- 1951, William Styron, Lie Down in Darkness, Ch. ii, page 59:
- ‘I guess I'll take this opportunity to go to the place’...
‘She means the little girls room.’
- ‘I guess I'll take this opportunity to go to the place’...
- 1901, John Stephen Farmer & al., Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, Vol. V, page 220:
- (obsolete) An area to fight: a battlefield or the contested ground in a battle.
- An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
- A location or position in space.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene v]:
- In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meete with thee.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- What place can be for us / Within heaven's bound?
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.
- 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:
- By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
- A particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader.
- (obsolete) A passage or extract from a book or document.
- (obsolete, rhetoric) A topic.
- A state of mind.
- I'm in a strange place at the moment.
- (chess, obsolete) A chess position; a square of the chessboard.
- (social) A responsibility or position in an organization.
- A role or purpose; a station.
- It is really not my place to say what is right and wrong in this case.
- 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Great Place”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, OCLC 863521290:
- Men in great place are thrice servants.
- c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene v]:
- I know my place as I would they should do theirs.
- 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- The [Washington] Post's proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy: at once regal Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account.
- The position of a contestant in a competition.
- We thought we would win but only ended up in fourth place.
- (horse-racing) The position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position.
- to win a bet on a horse for place
- The position as a member of a sports team.
- He lost his place in the national team.
- A role or purpose; a station.
- (obsolete) A fortified position: a fortress, citadel, or walled town.
- Numerically, the column counting a certain quantity.
- three decimal places; the hundreds place
- Ordinal relation; position in the order of proceeding.
- That's what I said in the first place!
- a. 1788, Mather Byles, quoted in The Life of James Otis by William Tudor
- In the first place, I do not understand politics; in the second place, you all do, every man and mother's son of you; in the third place, you have politics all the week, pray let one day in the seven be devoted to religion […]
- Reception; effect; implying the making room for.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, John 8:37:
- My word hath no place in you.
Synonyms
- (market square): courtyard, piazza, plaza, square
- (somewhere to sit): seat
- (outhouse or lavatory): See Thesaurus:bathroom
- (location): location, position, situation, stead, stell, spot
- (frame of mind): frame of mind, mindset, mood
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Middle English placen, from the noun (see above).
Verb
place (third-person singular simple present places, present participle placing, simple past and past participle placed)
- (transitive) To put (an object or person) in a specific location.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess[1]:
- Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
- 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:
- Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems— […]. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies.
- He placed the glass on the table.
- (intransitive) To earn a given spot in a competition.
- The Cowboys placed third in the league.
- (intransitive, racing) To finish second, especially of horses or dogs.
- In the third race: Aces Up won, paying eight dollars; Blarney Stone placed, paying three dollars; and Cinnamon showed, paying five dollars.
- (transitive, passive) To rank at (a certain position, often followed by an ordinal) as in a horse race.
- Run Ragged was placed fourth in the race.
- (transitive) To remember where and when (an object or person) has been previously encountered.
- I've seen him before, but I can't quite place where.
- (transitive) To sing (a note) with the correct pitch.
- (transitive) To arrange for or to make (a bet).
- I placed ten dollars on the Lakers beating the Bulls.
- (transitive) To establish a call (connection by telephone or similar).
- 2021, Vindman, Alexander S., “Impeachable Offense”, in Here, Right Matters: An American Story[2], HarperCollins, →ISBN, OCLC 1261635035:
- (transitive) To recruit or match an appropriate person for a job, or a home for an animal for adoption, etc.
- They phoned hoping to place her in the management team.
- (sports, transitive) To place-kick (a goal).
Conjugation
infinitive | (to) place | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | place | placed | |
2nd-person singular | |||
3rd-person singular | places | ||
plural | place | ||
subjunctive | place | placed | |
imperative | place | — | |
participles | placing | placed |
Synonyms
- (to earn a given spot):
- (to put in a specific location): deposit, lay, lay down, put down
- (to remember where and when something or someone was previously encountered):
- (passive, to achieve a certain position): achieve, make
- (to sing (a note) with the correct pitch): reach
- (to arrange for, make (a bet)):
- (to recruit or match an appropriate person):
Derived terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Anagrams
Czech place definition
Alternative forms
- placu (locative singular)
Pronunciation
Noun
place
Anagrams
French place definition
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Old French place, from Latin platea, from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa).
Noun
place f (plural places)
Derived terms
- aéroplace
- à la place
- déplacer
- en lieu et place
- en place
- faire du sur place
- faire place
- mettre en place
- mise en place
- monoplace
- multiplace
- place d'armes
- place d'honneur
- place forte
- placement
- placer
- placet
- placette
- placier
- prendre place
- qui part à la chasse perd sa place
- remettre à sa place
- remplacer
- se mettre à la place
- sur place
- surplace
- tenir en place
Descendants
- Haitian Creole: laplas (with definite article la)
- → English: laplas
- → Moroccan Arabic: بلاصة (blaṣa)
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
place
- inflection of placer:
Further reading
- “place”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
Interlingua place definition
Verb
place
- present of placer
- imperative of placer
Latin place definition
Verb
placē
Middle English place definition
Etymology 1
From Old English plætse, plæse, plæċe and Old French place, both from Latin platea, from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa).
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Noun
place (plural places)
- A place, area or spot; a part of the Earth or universe:
- A location or position in or on a larger space (occupied by something or someone):
- A place, station, or position; an appropriate or designated spot:
- The usual location or place of something (e.g. an animal's dwelling).
- A position in a hierarchy; rank, status, or level.
- A favourable or propitious occasion; an opportunity.
- Extent, space (in two or three dimensions)
Related terms
Descendants
References
- “plāce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 2
Noun
place
- Alternative form of playce
Old French place definition
Alternative forms
Etymology
Noun
place f (oblique plural places, nominative singular place, nominative plural places)
Descendants
- French: place
- → Irish: plás (through Anglo-Norman)
- → Middle Dutch: plaetse
- Dutch: plaats
- Limburgish: plaotsj, plaatsj
- → Middle High German: blaz, plaz
- → Middle Low German: platse, platze
- → Middle English: place, plaace, plache, plas, plasce, plase, plasse (conflated with Old English plæse, plætse, plæċe)
- → Moroccan Arabic: بلاصة (blaṣa)
- Norman: plache (through Old Northern French plache)
- Walloon: plaece
- → Welsh: plas
References
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (place, supplement)
- place on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
Polish place definition
Pronunciation
Noun
place m inan
Romanian place definition
Pronunciation
Verb
place
- inflection of plăcea:
Spanish place definition
Pronunciation
Verb
place
- inflection of placer: