Word.ws English Dictionary

fair play

fair play noun: good behavior; conduct (in sports or another endeavor) that is respectful of the rules, the spirit of the activity, and the adversary.

Noun

fair play (uncountable)

  1. Good behavior; conduct (in sports or another endeavor) that is respectful of the rules, the spirit of the activity, and the adversary.
    • The result, eventually, was the conviction of Mr. Hiss on charges of perjury. But the feature that especially appealed to me was the reputation that Congressman Nixon had achieved for fairness in the investigating process. Not once had he overstepped the limits prescribed by the American sense of...1963, Dwight Eisenhower, Mandate for Change 1953-1956, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 46
    • Financial fair play – talked about as if it is somehow nothing to do with the way the club is run, an imposition upon their work rather than a consequence of the way they work – meant that they could not spend what they do not generate.2017 January 18, Sid Lowe, “Chaos at Mestalla: Valencia's journey from Champions League to utter disarray”, in the Guardian

Phrase

fair play

  1. (Ireland, UK, colloquial) used to acknowledge or congratulate for something.
    • [S]he consolidated her position by purchasing the kennels, doing them up regardless of expense and buying two new horses, and, fair play to her, fair play, as they say in Wales, ...1964, Charles Norman De Courcy-Parry, Here lies my story, page 248
    • "Fair play to Jean, he has made it work for him."1990 July 1, Joe Saward, quoting Martin Donnelly, “Interview: Martin Donnelly”, in The Business of Motorsport Newsletter, archived from the original on 16 Oct 2017

fair play meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Kannada and Arabic

fair play in Tamil

நடுவுநிலை கெடாமை, நேர்நடத்தை

fair play in Urdu

عدل, انصاف

fair play in Kannada

ನಿಷ್ಪಕ್ಷಪಾತ ವ್ಯವಹಾರ, ನ್ಯಾಯವಾದ ವ್ಯವಹಾರ

fair play in Arabic

good behavior
لَعْب عَادِل laʕb ʕādil
More languagesFewer languages
fair play in Indonesian
saling menghormati

Examples of fair play in a sentence

  • Not once had he overstepped the limits prescribed by the American sense of fair play or American rules applying to such investigations.1963, Dwight Eisenhower, Mandate for Change 1953-1956, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 46:
  • The Gaelic Athletic Association, fair play to them, want absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with that thingumajig football tournament in America.1994 June 21, Liam Hayes, “GAA's holding its own now, but could lose in the end”, in Irish Voice, archived from the original on 21 Apr 2016:
  • I wasn't expecting much of Ms Dynamite at the start of the night, but fair play to her, she's got a great voice on her.2002 October 30, "Acquiesce", “Re: noel and chris at fair play gig”, in alt.music.oasis (Usenet):
  • Liam Watson: "Fair play to Southport, they were the best team on paper because they got the most points.2010 May 7, “Clayton sure buoyant Reds are up to the task of seeing off Fleetwood”, in Derby Evening Telegraph:

Questions about fair play

What does fair play mean?
Fair play means good behavior; conduct (in sports or another endeavor) that is respectful of the rules, the spirit of the activity, and the adversary.
What is fair play in Tamil?
Fair play in Tamil is நடுவுநிலை கெடாமை, நேர்நடத்தை. See Fair play meaning in Tamil.
How do you use fair play in a sentence?
Not once had he overstepped the limits prescribed by the American sense of fair play or American rules applying to such investigations.
What part of speech is fair play?
Fair play can be a noun or a phrase.

Words near fair play in the dictionary

  1. fair market values
  2. Fair Oaks
  3. fair off
  4. fair pennies
  5. fair penny
  6. fair play
  7. fair sex
  8. fair shake
  9. fair shake of the sauce bottle
  10. fair shakes
  11. fair share

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fair play (page history and authors); fair play (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fair play (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fair play (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fair play.wav.

Cite this entry: “fair play.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fair_play. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.