place

English Online Dictionary. What means place‎? What does place mean?

English

Alternative forms

• pleace (some English dialects: 18th–19th centuries; Scots: until the 17th century)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: plās, IPA^(key): /pleɪs/, [pl̥eɪs]
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [pleːs]
• Homophone: plaice
• Rhymes: -eɪs

Etymology 1

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.

Noun

place (countable and uncountable, plural places)

1. (physical) An area; somewhere within an area.
   1. An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
   2. (often in street names or addresses) A street, sometimes but not always surrounding a public place, square, or plaza of the same name.

   3. An inhabited area: a village, town, or city.
   4. Any area of the earth: a region.
   5. The area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit.

   6. The area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms.

   7. An area of the body, especially the skin.

   8. (euphemistic slang) An area to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
   9. (obsolete) An area to fight: a battlefield or the contested ground in a battle.
2. A location or position in space.
3. A particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader.
4. (obsolete) A passage or extract from a book or document.
5. (obsolete, rhetoric) A topic.
6. A state of mind.

7. (chess, obsolete) A chess position; a square of the chessboard.
8. (social) A responsibility or position in an organization.
   1. A role or purpose; a station.
   2. The position of a contestant in a competition.

   3. (horse racing) The position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position.

   4. The position as a member of a sports team.

9. (obsolete) A fortified position: a fortress, citadel, or walled town.
10. Numerically, the column counting a certain quantity.

11. Ordinal relation; position in the order of proceeding.
    • 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 […]

12. Reception; effect; implying the making room for.

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

Descendants

• Pijin: ples
• Tok Pisin: ples

Translations

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)

1. (transitive) To put (someone or something) in a specific location.

   Synonyms: lay, lay down, put down, set down, deposit

   to place someone on a pedestal
2. (ergative) To earn a given spot in a competition; to rank at a certain position ((often followed by an ordinal)).
   1. (intransitive, motor racing) To finish second, especially of horses or dogs.

3. (transitive) To remember where and when (an object or person) has been previously encountered.

4. (transitive) To vouch for someone's alibi.

5. (transitive) To sing (a note) with the correct pitch.

   Synonym: reach

6. (transitive, in collocations) To make.

   to place a call

   to place an order

   to place an ad in the newspaper

   to place a bid

   to place a bet

   to place a wager

7. (transitive) To bet.

8. (transitive) To recruit or match an appropriate person for a job, or a home for an animal for adoption, etc.

9. (sports, transitive) To place-kick (a goal).
10. (transitive) To assign (more or less value) to something.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (to achieve a certain position): achieve, make

Derived terms

• placement
• well-placed

Translations

Anagrams

• Capel, Caple, capel, caple, clape

Czech

Alternative forms

• placu (locative singular)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈplat͡sɛ]
• Rhymes: -atsɛ
• Hyphenation: pla‧ce

Noun

place

1. vocative/locative singular of plac

Anagrams

• palce, palec

Franco-Provençal

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Latin platea.

Noun

place f (plural places) (ORB, broad)

1. plaza, public square
2. place, location

References

• place in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• pllace in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

Further information

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 819: “in mezzo alla piazza” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• ALF: Atlas Linguistique de la France^[2] [Linguistic Atlas of France] – map 1024: “une place” – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “platea”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 9: Placabilis–Pyxis, page 37

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plas/
• Homophones: placent, places

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French place, from Latin platea, from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa).

Noun

place f (plural places)

1. place, square, plaza, piazza
2. place, space, room
3. place, seat

Derived terms

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

1. inflection of placer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “place”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• clape, Le Cap

Interlingua

Verb

place

1. present of placer
2. imperative of placer

Latin

Verb

placē

1. second-person singular present active imperative of placeō

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English plæċe and Old French place, both from Latin platea, from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa).

Alternative forms

• plaace, plache, plas, plasce, plase, plasse

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplaːs(ə)/, /ˈplas(ə)/

Noun

place (plural places)

1. A place, area or spot; a part of the Earth or universe:
   1. An inhabited place (such as a country, town etc.)
   2. A battlefield; a location of fighting.
   3. An estate or property; a house or building (often with its surrounds).
   4. (rare) A city square, market square, or courtyard.
2. A location or position in or on a larger space (occupied by something or someone):
   1. An area of the body (either of an organ or of the skin)
   2. A location in or passage from a written document.
   3. (mathematics) The place of a digit in a number written with Arabic numerals.
3. A place, station, or position; an appropriate or designated spot:
   1. The usual location or place of something (e.g. an animal's dwelling).
   2. A position in a hierarchy; rank, status, or level.
   3. A favourable or propitious occasion; an opportunity.
4. Extent, space (in two or three dimensions)

Related terms

• placen

Descendants

• English: place (dialectal pleace)
  • Pijin: ples
  • Tok Pisin: ples
• Scots: place, pleece

References

• “plāce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Noun

place

1. Alternative form of playce

Old French

Alternative forms

• plache, plaise, plas

Etymology

From Latin platea.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplat͡sə/, (later) /ˈplasə/

Noun

place oblique singular, f (oblique plural places, nominative singular place, nominative plural places)

1. place; location

Descendants

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (place, supplement)
• place on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpla.t͡sɛ/
• Rhymes: -at͡sɛ
• Syllabification: pla‧ce

Noun

place m inan

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of plac

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈplat͡ʃe]

Verb

place

1. inflection of plăcea:
   1. second-person singular imperative
   2. third-person singular present indicative

   Îți place de el? ― Do you like him?

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈplaθe/ [ˈpla.θe]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /ˈplase/ [ˈpla.se]
• Rhymes: -aθe
• Rhymes: -ase
• Syllabification: pla‧ce

Verb

place

1. inflection of placer:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative