Word.ws English Dictionary

place

/ˈpleːs//ˈpleɪ̯s/

place noun: an open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.

Noun

place (countable and uncountable, plural places)

  1. (physical) An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
    • Ay, sir, the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boys in the market-placec. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (often, physical) A street, sometimes but not always surrounding a public place, square, or plaza of the same name.
    • They live at Westminster Place.
  3. (physical) An inhabited area: a village, town, or city.
  4. (physical) Any area of the earth: a region.
    • He is going back to his native place on vacation.
    • 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.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  5. (physical) The area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit.
    • We asked the restaurant to give us a table with three places.
    Synonyms:
    seat
  6. (physical) The area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms.
    • My Lady Dedlock has been down at what she calls, in familiar conversation, her "place" in Lincolnshire.1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC
    • Do you want to come over to my place later?
  7. (physical) An area of the body, especially the skin.
    • Which place hurts the most?
  8. (euphemistic, physical, slang) An area to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
    • Place,... (2) a jakes, or house of ease.1901, John Stephen Farmer et al., Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, volume V, page 220
    • ‘I guess I'll take this opportunity to go to the place’...
      ‘She means the little girls room.’1951, William Styron, chapter II, in Lie Down in Darkness, page 59
    Synonyms:
    bathroom
  9. (obsolete, physical) An area to fight: a battlefield or the contested ground in a battle.
  10. A location or position in space.
    • I'll check places I think she might be.
    • In that same place thou hast appointed me,
      To-morrow truly will I meete with thee.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...
  11. Proper or usual position.
    • A place for everything, and everything in its place.
  12. A particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader
    • I lost my place when you interrupted me.
Show 12 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (obsolete) A passage or extract from a book or document.
  2. (obsolete, rhetoric) A topic.
  3. A state of mind.
    • I'm in a strange place at the moment.
  4. (obsolete) A chess position; a square of the chessboard.
  5. (social) A role or purpose; a station.
    • It is really not my place to say what is right and wrong in this case.
    • I know my place as I would they should do theirs.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...
  6. (social) The position of a contestant in a competition.
    • We thought we would win but only ended up in fourth place.
  7. (social) The position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position.
    • to win a bet on a horse for place
  8. (social) 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.
    • My word hath no place in you.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 8:37

Verb

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.
    • to place someone on a pedestal
  2. (ergative) To earn a given spot in a competition; to rank at a certain position ((often followed by an ordinal)).
    • The Cowboys placed third in the league.
    • Run Ragged was placed fourth in the race.
    1. (ergative, intransitive) 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) 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.
  4. (transitive) To vouch for someone's alibi.
    • The librarian was placed at home by her neighbor at the time of the murder.
  5. (transitive) To sing (a note) with the correct pitch.
    Synonyms:
    reach
  6. (transitive) To make.
    • 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.2021, Alexander S. Vindman, “Impeachable Offense”, in Here, Right Matters: An American Story, HarperCollins, →ISBN
    • to place a call
  7. (transitive) To bet.
    • I placed ten dollars on the Lakers beating the Bulls.
  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.
    • Designated as the core of the southern forces were: the 5th Division, which was recalled from northern French Indochina to Shanghai, placed under the direct control of Imperial Headquarters, and, on October 12, ordered to “train primarily for landing operations” (Imperial Headquarters Army Order...1980, Tsunoda Jun, “The Navy's Role in the Southern Strategy”, in Robert A. Scalapino, transl., edited by James William Morley, The Fateful Choice: Japan's Advance into Southeast Asia, 1939-1941, New...
  9. (transitive) To place-kick (a goal).
  10. (transitive) To assign (more or less value) to something.
    • My workplace places a high premium on team spirit.
    • She places little value on religion.

Proper noun capitalized: Place

Place (countable and uncountable, plural Places)

  1. A surname.
  2. An unincorporated community in the town of Farmington, Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States.

place meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

place in Hindi

open space, courtyard, market square
चौक cauk
location, position
जगह jagah, मकान makān, स्थान sthān

place in Tamil

location, position
இடம் iṭam

place in Marathi

location, position
जागा jāgā

place in Urdu

open space, courtyard, market square
مَیدان maidān, چَوک cauk
location, position
جَگَہْ jagah, جَگَہ jaga, مَکان makān, جاگَہ jāga
More languagesFewer languages
place in Bengali
জায়গা jaẏga
place in Telugu
స్థలము sthalamu, బహిరంగ ప్రదేశం bahiraṅga pradēśaṁ, చోటు cōṭu, జాగా jāgā
place in Malayalam
സ്ഥലം sthalaṁ, സ്ഥാനം sthānaṁ
place in Kannada
ಸ್ಥಳ sthaḷa
place in Punjabi
ਸਥਾਨ
place in Gujarati
સ્થળ sthaḷ
place in Odia
ପକାଇବା pakāibā, ରୁହାଇବା ruhāibā, କରଣ karaṇa, ଅଗଣା agaṇā
place in Sanskrit
स्थान sthāna, दधाति dadhāti
place in Sinhala
ස්ථානය sthānaya
place in Assamese
ঠাই thai
place in Nepali
स्थान sthān
place in Pashto
ميدان maydān, ځای zāy, مکان makãn
place in Tagalog
pook, lugar, ilagay
place in Arabic
مَيْدَان maydān, مَكَان makān, مَقْعَد maqʕad, مكان makān
place in Malay
tempat
place in Indonesian
tempat, menempatkan
place in Persian
مَیْدَان maydān, مِیْدان meydân, جای jây, مَحَلّ mahall
place in Thai
จัตุรัส jàt-dtù-ràt, สแควร์ sà-kwɛɛ, พลาซ่า plaa-sâa, บริเวณ bɔɔ-rí-ween
place in Vietnamese
quảng trường, ghế, nơi, chỗ
place in Myanmar
နေရာ nera
Kashmiri
جاے jāy, شاے śāy

Examples of place in a sentence

  • to place an ad in the newspaper
  • What place can be for us / Within heaven's bound?1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
  • A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • 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.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XIX, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
  • 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.2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:

All 40 example sentences with place

Synonyms of place

16 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of place

Forms of place

Noun
pluralplaces
alternative formpleace
Verb
third-person singular presentplaces
present participleplacing
past participleplaced
pastplaced
second-person singular present (archaic)placest
second-person singular past (archaic)placedst
third-person singular present (archaic)placeth
past participle (archaic)yplaced
Proper noun
pluralPlaces

Past tense of place: placed

Plural of place: places

Origin of place

From Middle English place, conflation of Old English plæċe (“place, an open space, street”) and Old French place (“place, an open space”), both from Latin platēa (“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 (partially), and -ern. Compare also English pleck (“plot of ground”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot, location”), Dutch plek (“place, spot, patch”). Doublet of piatza, piazza, platz, and plaza. In the etymological chain from Latin platēa, note Old French place, which has multiple descendants — including German Platz, itself with many descendants (e.g., Russian плац (plac)). Also note a more distant chain node Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), whence English Plato and English plate (via Latin).

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

Words formed from place

Phrases with place

150 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with place

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about place

What does place mean?
Place means an open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
What is place in Hindi?
Place in Hindi is चौक (cauk), जगह (jagah), मकान (makān). See Place meaning in Hindi.
How do you use place in a sentence?
to place an ad in the newspaper
What part of speech is place?
Place can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce place?
Place is pronounced /ˈpleɪ̯s/ (UK).
What is the plural of place?
The plural of place is places.

Words near place in the dictionary

  1. placcat
  2. placcate
  3. placcates
  4. placcats
  5. placcy
  6. place
  7. place an order
  8. place blindness
  9. place card
  10. place cards
  11. place cell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: place (page history and authors); Place (page history and authors); ଅଗଣା (Odia) (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-uk-to place.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-place.wav.

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