Wiktionary

place

See also: Place, placé, pláče, plāce, płace, and płacę

English edit

 
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Alternative forms edit

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

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

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, 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 edit

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.
      They live at Westminster Place.
    3. An inhabited area: a village, town, or city.
    4. 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:
        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.
    5. The area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit.
      We asked the restaurant to give us a table with three places.
    6. The area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms.
      Do you want to come over to my place later?
    7. An area of the body, especially the skin.
      Which place hurts the most?
    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.
    • 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]:
      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; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      What place can be for us / Within heaven's bound?
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      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.
  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.
    I'm in a strange place at the moment.
  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.
      It is really not my place to say what is right and wrong in this case.
      • 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]:
        I know my place as I would they should do theirs.
      • 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]:
        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.
      • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Great Place”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
        Men in great place are thrice servants.
      • 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.
    2. The position of a contestant in a competition.
      We thought we would win but only ended up in fourth place.
    3. (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
    4. The position as a member of a sports team.
      He lost his place in the national team.
  9. (obsolete) A fortified position: a fortress, citadel, or walled town.
  10. Numerically, the column counting a certain quantity.
    three decimal places;  the hundreds place
  11. 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 […]
  12. Reception; effect; implying the making room for.
Synonyms edit
Hyponyms edit
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
  • Pijin: ples
  • Tok Pisin: ples
Translations edit
area to fight — see battlefield
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English placen, from the noun (see above).

Verb edit

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.
    He placed the glass on the table.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28, page 53:
      His life vvas nigh vnto deaths dore yplaſte, / And thred-bare cote, and cobled ſhoes hee vvare, […]
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XIX, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      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.
  2. (intransitive) To earn a given spot in a competition.
    The Cowboys placed third in the league.
    1. (intransitive, motor 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.
  3. (transitive, passive voice) To rank at (a certain position, often followed by an ordinal) as in a horse race.
    Run Ragged was placed fourth in the race.
  4. (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.
  5. (transitive) To sing (a note) with the correct pitch.
  6. (transitive) To arrange for or to make (a bet).
    I placed ten dollars on the Lakers beating the Bulls.
  7. (transitive) To establish a call (connection by telephone or similar).
    • 2021, Alexander S. Vindman, “Impeachable Offense”, in Here, Right Matters: An American Story‎[1], HarperCollins, →ISBN:
      We were all focused intently on the triangular conference call speaker in the middle of the table. President Trump's communications team was placing a call to President Volodymyr Zelenksy of Ukraine, and we were here to listen.
  8. (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.
  9. (sports, transitive) To place-kick (a goal).
Conjugation edit
Conjugation of place
infinitive (to) place
present tense past tense
1st-person singular place placed
2nd-person singular place, placest† placed, placedst†
3rd-person singular places, placeth† placed
plural place
subjunctive place placed
imperative place —
participles placing placed, yplaced†

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms edit
  • (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 edit
Translations edit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Anagrams edit

Czech edit

Alternative forms edit

  • placu (locative singular)

Pronunciation edit

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

Noun edit

place

  1. vocative/locative singular of plac

Anagrams edit

French edit

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

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

Noun edit

place f (plural places)

  1. place, square, plaza, piazza
  2. place, space, room
  3. place, seat
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit

Etymology 2 edit

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb edit

place

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

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

Interlingua edit

Verb edit

place

  1. present of placer
  2. imperative of placer

Latin edit

Verb edit

placē

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of placeō

Middle English edit

Etymology 1 edit

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

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈplaːs(ə)/, /ˈplas(ə)/

Noun edit

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 edit
Descendants edit
References edit

Etymology 2 edit

Noun edit

place

  1. Alternative form of playce

Old French edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Latin platea.

Pronunciation edit

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

Noun edit

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

  1. place; location

Descendants edit

References edit

Polish edit

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

place m inan

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of plac

Romanian edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

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 edit

Pronunciation edit

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

Verb edit

place

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