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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

plaid.

A type of twilled woollen cloth, often with a tartan or chequered pattern.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pled/Scotland/plad/Scotland/plæd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation, UK

  1. A type of twilled woollen cloth, often with a tartan or chequered pattern.

    countable · uncountable

  2. A length of such material used as a piece of clothing, formerly worn in the Scottish Highlands and other parts of northern Britain and remaining as an item of ceremonial dress worn by members of Scottish pipe bands.

    countable · uncountable

  3. The typical chequered pattern of a plaid; tartan.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Scots plaid, of uncertain origin; perhaps from a past participle form of ply. Scottish Gaelic plaide (“blanket”) is probably a borrowing from Scots. Also compare Scottish Gaelic peall (“covering, veil, blanket”) << Latin pellis (“hide, covering”), but the OED finds the sound changes problematic.

adj/pled/Scotland/plad/Scotland/plæd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation, UK

  1. Having a pattern or colors which resemble a Scottish tartan; checkered or marked with bars or stripes at right angles to one another.

Where this word comes from

From Scots plaid, of uncertain origin; perhaps from a past participle form of ply. Scottish Gaelic plaide (“blanket”) is probably a borrowing from Scots. Also compare Scottish Gaelic peall (“covering, veil, blanket”) << Latin pellis (“hide, covering”), but the OED finds the sound changes problematic.

verb

  1. simple past and past participle of play

    archaic · form-of · participle · past
Where this word comes from

Alternative forms.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.