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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

plate.

A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpleɪ̯t/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈpʰl̥eɪ̯t]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈplæ̝ɪ̯t/Australia
  1. A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.

    countable · uncountable
    I filled my plate from the bountiful table.
  2. Such dishes collectively.

    uncountable
    A valuable collection of silver plate was donated to the museum.
  3. The contents of such a dish.

    countable · uncountable
    I ate a plate of beans.
  4. A course at a meal.

    countable · uncountable
    The meat plate was particularly tasty.
  5. An agenda of tasks, problems, or responsibilities

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
    With revenues down and transfer payments up, the legislature has a full plate.
  6. A flat object of uniform thickness.

    countable · uncountable
    The most important and most expensive part of any solar cell is a silicon plate.
  7. Vehicle license plates, registration plates.

    Australia · countable · especially · metonymically · plural · plural-only · uncountable
    He stole a car and changed the plates as soon as he could.
  8. A taxi permit, especially of a metal disc.

    countable · uncountable
  9. Plate armor.

    countable · historical · uncountable
    He was confronted by two knights in full plate.
  10. A layer of a material on the surface of something, usually qualified by the type of the material; plating

    countable · uncountable
    The bullets just bounced off the steel plate on its hull.
  11. A material covered with such a layer.

    countable · uncountable
    If you're not careful, someone will sell you silverware that's really only silver plate.
  12. An ornamental or food service item coated with silver or gold or otherwise decorated.

    countable · dated · uncountable
    The tea was served in the plate.
  13. A weighted disk, usually of metal, with a hole in the center for use with a barbell, dumbbell, or exercise machine.

    countable · uncountable
  14. An engraved surface used to transfer an image to paper.

    countable · uncountable
    We finished making the plates this morning.
  15. An image or copy.

    countable · uncountable
  16. An illustration in a book, either black and white, or colour, usually on a page of paper of different quality from the text pages.

    countable · uncountable
  17. A shaped and fitted surface, usually ceramic or metal that fits into the mouth and in which teeth are implanted; a dental plate.

    countable · uncountable
  18. A horizontal framing member at the top or bottom of a group of vertical studs.

    countable · uncountable
  19. A person's foot.

    Cockney · countable · slang · uncountable
    Sit down and give your plates a rest.
  20. Home plate.

    countable · uncountable
    There was a close play at the plate.
  21. A tectonic plate.

    countable · uncountable
  22. Any of various larger scales found in some reptiles.

    countable · uncountable
  23. A flat electrode such as can be found in an accumulator battery, or in an electrolysis tank.

    countable · uncountable
  24. The anode of a vacuum tube.

    countable · uncountable
    Regulating the oscillator plate voltage greatly improves the keying.
  25. A prize given to the winner in a contest.

    countable · uncountable
  26. Any flat piece of material such as coated glass or plastic.

    countable · uncountable
  27. A metallic card, used to imprint tickets with an airline's logo, name, and numeric code.

    countable · dated · uncountable
  28. The ability of a travel agent to issue tickets on behalf of a particular airline.

    broadly · countable · uncountable
  29. A VIN plate, particularly with regard to the car's year of manufacture.

    Australia · countable · uncountable
  30. One of the thin parts of the brisket of an animal.

    countable · uncountable
  31. A very light steel horseshoe for racehorses.

    countable · uncountable
  32. Skins for fur linings of garments, sewn together and roughly shaped, but not finally cut or fitted.

    countable · uncountable
  33. The fine nap (as of beaver, musquash, etc.) on a hat whose body is made from inferior material.

    countable · uncountable
  34. A record, usually vinyl.

    countable · uncountable
  35. trauma plate.

    countable · uncountable
    The SAPI plate in his vest protected him from the bullet's impact.
  36. Any of the potential romantic or sexual partners with whom a person keeps in touch as part of plate spinning.

    countable · slang · uncountable
    More plates means more dates!
  37. A Lego piece that is thin, 1/3 the height of a brick, and has studs on top.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English plate, from Old French plate, from Medieval Latin plata, from Vulgar Latin *plat(t)us, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat, wide”). Compare Spanish plato. (foot): Cockney rhyming slang, from "plates of meat" for "feet".

verb/ˈpleɪ̯t/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈpʰl̥eɪ̯t]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈplæ̝ɪ̯t/Australia
  1. To cover the surface material of an object with a thin coat of another material, usually a metal.

    transitive
    This ring is plated with a thin layer of gold.
  2. To place the various elements of a meal on the diner's plate prior to serving.

    transitive
    After preparation, the chef will plate the dish.
  3. To score a run.

    transitive
    The single plated the runner from second base.
  4. To arm or defend with metal plates.

    transitive
  5. To beat into thin plates.

    transitive
  6. To specify which airline a ticket will be issued on behalf of.

    Tickets are normally plated on an itinerary's first international airline.
  7. To categorize stamps based on their position on the original sheet, in order to reconstruct an entire sheet.

    transitive
  8. To identify the printing plate used, particularly with early British stamps.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English platen, from Old English platian and Old French plater, both ultimately from Latin plata (see above).

noun/ˈpleɪ̯t/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈpʰl̥eɪ̯t]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈplæ̝ɪ̯t/Australia
  1. Precious metal, especially silver.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English, partly from Anglo-Norman plate (“plate, bullion”) and partly from Latin plata (“silver”), from Vulgar Latin *platta (“metal plate”), from feminine of Latin *plattus (“flat”).

noun/ˈpleɪ̯t/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈpʰl̥eɪ̯t]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈplæ̝ɪ̯t/Australia
  1. Silver or gold, in the form of a coin, or less often silver or gold utensils or dishes.

    obsolete
  2. A roundel of silver or argent.

Where this word comes from

From Spanish plata (“silver”).

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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.