dais
UK/ˈdeɪ.ɪs//ˈdeɪəs/
dais noun: a raised platform in a room for a high table, a seat of honour, a throne, or other dignified occupancy, such as ancestral statues; a similar platform supporting a lectern, pulpit, etc., which may be used to speak from.
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Noun (1)
dais (plural daises)
- A raised platform in a room for a high table, a seat of honour, a throne, or other dignified occupancy, such as ancestral statues; a similar platform supporting a lectern, pulpit, etc., which may be used to speak from.
- Many of the figures, clad in mail from head to foot, were ranged above the dais; and she could almost fancy a skeleton form beneath, or that wild and fearful eyes glared through the apertures of the closed visors.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 139
- At last we came to the head of the cave, where there was a rock daïs almost exactly similar to the one on which we had been so furiously attacked, a fact that proved to me that these daïs must have been used as altars, probably for the celebration of religious ceremonies, and more especially of...1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- podium
- A bench, a settle, a pew.
- [page 211] The Mer-man he stept o'er ae deas, / And he has steppit over three: / "O maiden, pledge me faith and troth! / O Marstig's daughter, gang wi' me!" […] [pages 213–214] Notes on The Mer-man. […] I remember having seen in the hall of the ruined castle of Elan Stalker, in the district of...1806, “The Mer-man, and Marstig's Daughter”, in Robert Jamieson, editor, Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions; with Translations of Similar Pieces from the...
- DAIS, Dess, Deas […] A long board, seat or bench erected against a wall. […] A pew in a church[1808, John Jamieson, “DAIS, Dess, Deas, s[ubstantive]”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: … In Two Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed at the University Press; for W[illiam]...
- An elevated table in a hall at which important people were seated; a high table.
- As the principal table was always placed upon a dais, it began very soon, by a natural abuse of words, to be called itself a Dais, and people were said to sit at the dais, instead of at the table upon the dais.1838, John Britton, “Dais, Deis”, in A Dictionary of the Architecture and Archaeology of the Middle Ages: Including Words Used by Ancient and Modern Authors in Treating of Architectural and Other...
- The canopy over an altar, etc.
Noun (2) capitalized: Dais
Dais
- plural of Dai
dais meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Tagalog
dais in Hindi
- raised platform
- पीठ pīṭh, मंच mañc
dais in Marathi
- raised platform
- व्यासपीट vyāspīṭ
dais in Telugu
- raised platform
- వేదిక vēdika
dais in Tagalog
- raised platform
- tarima
More languagesFewer languages
- dais in Vietnamese
- bệ, bục
Examples of dais in a sentence
- A dais wife is a woman who sits at a round table with the wives of other men who are seated on the dais.1974 June 10, Julie Baumgold, “The Golden Dais Days of Mary Beame”, in New York, volume 7, number 23, New York, N.Y.: NYM Corporation...
- And then when we saw all the empty chairs, we decided to drag some randos in off the street to fill them!” [drum plays rim shot] [laughter] “So many illustrious guests here on the dais tonight.2023 August 24, Sarah Naftalis & Lauren Wells, “The Roast” (4:15 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 8, spoken...
Synonyms of dais
Forms of dais
| plural | daises |
|---|---|
| alternative form | daïs |
| alternative form | deas |
| alternative form | deis |
Origin of dais
From Middle English deis, from Anglo-Norman deis, from Old French deis, dois (modern French dais), from Latin discum, accusative singular of discus (“discus, disc, quoit; dish”) (Late Latin discum (“table”)), from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “discus, disc; tray”), from δικεῖν (dikeîn, “to cast, to throw; to strike”). Cognate with Italian desco, Occitan des. Doublet of desk, disc, discus, dish, disk, and diskos.
Phrases with dais
Words that rhyme with dais
Questions about dais
- What does dais mean?
- Dais means a raised platform in a room for a high table, a seat of honour, a throne, or other dignified occupancy, such as ancestral statues; a similar platform supporting a lectern, pulpit, etc., which may be used to speak from.
- What is dais in Hindi?
- Dais in Hindi is पीठ (pīṭh), मंच (mañc). See Dais meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use dais in a sentence?
- A dais wife is a woman who sits at a round table with the wives of other men who are seated on the dais.
- What part of speech is dais?
- Dais is a noun.
- How do you pronounce dais?
- Dais is pronounced /ˈdeɪ.ɪs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of dais?
- The plural of dais is daises.
Words near dais in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dais (page history and authors); Dais (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dais.ogg, en-au-dais.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dais.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dais. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.