place
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: plās
ipa: /pleɪs/
ipa: [pl̥eɪs]
ipa: [pleːs]
homophone: plaice
rhymes: -eɪs
Forms: form: places
form: pleace
Etymology: From Middle English place, conflation of Old English 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, stede, and -ern. Compare also English pleck (“plot of ground”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot, location”), Dutch plek (“place, spot, patch”). Doublet of piatza, piazza, and plaza.
Senses: examples: text: Ay, sir, the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boys in the market-place
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), 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, [Act IV, scene iv]:
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
examples: text: They live at Westminster Place.
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
A street, sometimes but not always surrounding a public place, square, or plaza of the same name.
raw_tags: in street names or addresses
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
An inhabited area: a village, town, or city.
examples: text: He is going back to his native place on vacation.
text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
Any area of the earth: a region.
examples: text: We asked the restaurant to give us a table with three places.
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
The area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit.
examples: text: My Lady Dedlock has been down at what she calls, in familiar conversation, her "place" in Lincolnshire.
ref: 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
text: Do you want to come over to my place later?
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
The area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms.
examples: text: Which place hurts the most?
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
An area of the body, especially the skin.
examples: text: Place,... (2) a jakes, or house of ease.
ref: 1901, John Stephen Farmer et al., Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, volume V, page 220:
text: ‘I guess I'll take this opportunity to go to the place’...
‘She means the little girls room.’
ref: 1951, William Styron, chapter II, in Lie Down in Darkness, page 59:
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
An area to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
glosses: An area; somewhere within an area.
An area to fight: a battlefield or the contested ground in a battle.
examples: text: In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meete with thee.
ref: 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, [Act II, scene v]:
text: What place can be for us / Within heaven's bound?
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:
glosses: A location or position in space.
examples: text: I lost my place when you interrupted me.
glosses: A particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader
glosses: A passage or extract from a book or document.
glosses: A topic.
examples: text: I'm in a strange place at the moment.
glosses: A state of mind.
topics: board-games
chess
games
glosses: A chess position; a square of the chessboard.
examples: text: It is really not my place to say what is right and wrong in this case.
text: I know my place as I would they should do theirs.
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:
text: Escalus.Esc.I shall desire you, Sir, to giue me leaue
To haue free speech with you; and it concernes me
To looke into the bottome of my place :
A powre I haue, but of what strength and nature,
I am not yet instructed.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: Men in great place are thrice servants.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Great Place”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
qualifier: social
glosses: A responsibility or position in an organization.
A role or purpose; a station.
examples: text: We thought we would win but only ended up in fourth place.
qualifier: social
glosses: A responsibility or position in an organization.
The position of a contestant in a competition.
examples: text: to win a bet on a horse for place
topics: hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
lifestyle
pets
racing
sports
qualifier: social
glosses: A responsibility or position in an organization.
The position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position.
examples: text: He lost his place in the national team.
qualifier: social
glosses: A responsibility or position in an organization.
The position as a member of a sports team.
glosses: A fortified position: a fortress, citadel, or walled town.
examples: text: three decimal places;  the hundreds place
glosses: Numerically, the column counting a certain quantity.
examples: text: That's what I said in the first place!
text: 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 […]
glosses: Ordinal relation; position in the order of proceeding.
examples: text: My word hath no place in you.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 8:37:
glosses: Reception; effect; implying the making room for.
Synonyms: sense: market square
word: courtyard
sense: market square
word: piazza
sense: market square
word: plaza
sense: market square
word: square
sense: somewhere to sit
word: seat
sense: outhouse or lavatory
word: bathroom
topics: location
word: location
topics: location
word: position
topics: location
word: situation
topics: location
word: stead
topics: location
word: stell
topics: location
word: spot
sense: frame of mind
word: frame of mind
sense: frame of mind
word: mindset
sense: frame of mind
word: mood
Hyponyms: abiding place
decimal place
dwelling place
hiding place
meeting place
passing place
purging place
resting place
workplace
Derived terms: word: abiding-place
word: age in place
word: all dressed up and no place to go
word: all dressed up with no place to go
word: all over the place
word: all over the place like a mad woman's custard
word: another place
word: anyplace
word: as if someone owns the place
word: better place
word: between a rock and a hard place
word: birthplace
word: burial place
word: burial-place
word: buryingplace
word: businessplace
word: by-place
word: census-designated place
word: change place
word: change places
word: come from a good place
word: come from the right place
word: common-place
word: cyberplace
word: defector-in-place
word: degree place
word: Delivered At Place
word: don't spend it all in one place
word: due place
word: dwelling-place
word: Elmwood Place
word: emplace
word: everyplace
word: fall about the place
word: fall into place
word: farmplace
word: find one's place
word: fireplace
word: friends in high places
word: give place
word: hair out of place
word: happy place
word: have one's heart in the right place
word: hearthplace
word: hiding-place
word: hiding place
word: high place
word: homeplace
word: incorporated place
word: in place
word: in place of
word: in places
word: interplace
word: in the first place
word: in the right place at the right time
word: in the wrong place at the wrong time
word: into place
word: jumping-off place
word: know one's place
word: landing place
word: learn one's place
word: letterplace
word: lightning does not strike twice in the same place
word: lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place
word: lightning never strikes twice in the same place
word: like one owns the place
word: like someone owns the place
word: market place
word: marketplace
word: midplace
word: misplace
word: necessary place
word: nonplace
word: non-place
word: No Place
word: no place
word: noplace
word: of place
word: out of place
word: out-of-place
word: outplace
word: overplace
word: parking place
word: partyplace
word: pick and place
word: placeability
word: placeable
word: place an order
word: place blindness
word: placeblog
word: place card
word: place cell
word: placeful
word: placegetter
word: placegetting
word: placeholder
word: place holder
word: placeholding
word: place-hunter
word: place importance on
word: place in the sun
word: place kick
word: place-kick
word: placekick
word: placeless
word: placemaker
word: placemaking
word: placeman
word: placemark
word: placemarker
word: place mat
word: place money
word: placemonger
word: place-name
word: place name
word: placename
word: placeness
word: place of articulation
word: place of birth
word: place of business
word: place of decimals
word: place of honor
word: place of worship
word: place one's cards on the table
word: placepot
word: place setting
word: placeshift
word: place shifting
word: placeshifting
word: place to be
word: place value
word: place word
word: placial
word: playplace
word: polling place
word: postplace
word: preplace
word: preposition of place
word: pride of place
word: public place
word: put oneself in someone's place
word: put someone in their place
word: replace
word: resting-place
word: safe place
word: sense of place
word: shelter-in-place
word: shelter in place
word: showplace
word: someplace
word: sticking place
word: sticking-place
word: subplace
word: take one's place
word: take place
word: take someone's place
word: take the place of
word: the bad place
word: the darkest place is under the candlestick
word: the other place
word: there is a place and time for everything
word: there is a time and place for everything
word: there's a place and time for everything
word: there's a time and a place for everything
word: there's a time and place for everything
word: there's no place like home
word: third place
word: time-manner-place
word: transplace
word: underplace
word: unincorporated place
word: unity of place
word: unplace
word: unplaceable
word: valet-de-place
word: washplace
word: watering place
word: wide place in the road
word: work-place
word: workplace
word: your place or mine