Word.ws English Dictionary

plat

/plæt/

plat noun: a plot of land; a lot. Also the clipping of platform.

plat: a plot of land; a lot
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Noun (1)

plat (plural plats)

  1. A plot of land; a lot.
    • The best ſoyle commonly yeelds the worſt Ayre, a dry ſandy plat is fitteſt to build upon, and ſuch as is rather hilly then plaine, full of Downes, a Cotſwald county, as being moſt commodious for hawking, hunting, wood, waters, and all manner of pleaſures.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Ayre Rectified. With a Digression of the Ayre.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James...
    • Such pleaſure took the Serpent to behold
      This Flourie Plat, the ſweet receſs of Eve
      Thus earlie, thus alone; [...]1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
  2. A map showing the boundaries of real properties (delineating one or more plots of land), especially one that forms part of a legal document.
    • For which cauſe I wiſh you to enter into conſideration of the matter, & to note all the Iſlands, and to ſet them downe in plat, to two ends: that is to ſay, That we may deuiſe to take the benefit by them, And alſo foreſee how by them the Sauages or ciuill Princes may in any ſort annoy us in our...1580, Richard Hakluyt, “Notes in Writing, besides More Priuie by Mouth, that were Giuen by M. Richard Hakluyt, […], Anno 1580: To M. Arthur Pet, and to M. Charles Iackman, Sent by the Merchants of...
    • A husband can not, without authority from his wife, plat her land, and the fact that the land which he assumes to plat was omitted by mistake from a previous plat made and acknowledged by her can make no difference.1888, John W[orth] Kern, official reporter, “The City of Indianapolis v. Patterson”, in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of Indiana, […], volume...
  3. (obsolete) A plot, a scheme.
    • Besides some care is taken, so far as conveniently can be, both to give regard to the further spring of any matter tending to the entry or execution of any other or evil plat, and also upon the sight thereof, to have timely recourse to the King, to warn him and others to beware and provide for the...1582 July 9, Robert Bowes, “CCXXV.—‘To Sir Francis Walsingham, ix July 1583.’ From the Letter-Book, p. 223.”, in [Joseph] Stevenson, editor, The Correspondence of Robert Bowes, of Aske, Esquire, the...
    • [S]o shall our plat in this one point be larger and much surmount that which [Richard] Stanihurst first tooke in hand by his exameters dactilicke and spondaicke in the translation of Virgills Eneidos, [...]1589, George Puttenham, chapter XII, in The Arte of English Poesie: […], London: Printed by Richard Field, […], →OCLC; republished as Jos[eph] Haslewood, editor, The Arte of English Poesie, London...

Verb (1)

plat (third-person singular simple present plats, present participle platting, simple past and past participle platted)

  1. (transitive) To create a plat; to lay out property lots and streets; to map.
    • A husband can not, without authority from his wife, plat her land, and the fact that the land which he assumes to plat was omitted by mistake from a previous plat made and acknowledged by her can make no difference.1888, John W[orth] Kern, official reporter, “The City of Indianapolis v. Patterson”, in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of Indiana, […], volume...
    • He platted his land, extending the lateral lines of the lots south of Shore, or India street, indefinitely out into the river.1902 June 19, Justice Horatio Rogers Jr.; Edward C. Stiness, reporter, “Ellen Dawson et al. vs. Robert Broome”, in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Appellate Division of the Supreme...

Noun (2)

plat (countable and uncountable, plural plats)

  1. A braid; a plait (of hair, straw, etc.).
    • Her haire nor looſe nor ti'd in formall plat, / Proclaimd in her a careleſſe hand of pride; [...]1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC
    • they also wear a cap or cup on the head formed of beargrass and cedar bark. the men also frequently attatch some small ornament to a small plat of hair on the center of the crown of their heads.c. 1806, record in the journals of Lewis and Clark, recorded in The United States Exploration Anthology (2013)
  2. Material produced by braiding or interweaving, especially a material of interwoven straw from which straw hats are made.
    • The large silver medal and twenty guineas, were this Session given to Miss Sophia Woodhouse, (Mrs. Wells,) of Weathersfield, in Connecticut, United States, for a new Material for Straw Plat.1824, “New Material for Straw Plat”, in The New England Farmer, volume 2, page 316
    • Her Ladyship, in a letter to A. Aikin, Esq., […] dated Castle Bernard, Ireland, Oct. 19, 1827, states that she has made some improvement in the mode of preparing the rye-straw, which is the material for plat employed in the school under her ladyship’s patronage.1829, “On British Leghorn Plat for Hats and Bonnets, by Lady Harriet Bernard”, in Gill’s Technological Repository, volume 4, page 381

Verb (2)

plat (third-person singular simple present plats, present participle platting, simple past and past participle platted)

  1. (dated except regional England) To braid, to plait.
    • And when they had platted a crowne of thornes, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, ſaying, haile king of the Jewes.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 27:29
    • A customer hailed him; he placed the stool on the ground, and the customer seated himself upon it, while the barber shaved his face, platted his hair, and washed his hands [...]1844, Thomas Jefferson Jacobs, Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Pacific Ocean, page 349

Adjective

plat (comparative more plat, superlative most plat)

  1. (obsolete except Scotland) Flat; level; (by extension) frank, on the level.
    • But else, hold alway^([sic]) your tail fast between your legs that he catch you not thereby; and hold down your ears lying plat after your head that he hold you not thereby; and see wisely to yourself.1889, Henry Morley, Early Prose Romances: The history of Reynard the Fox, page 149
    • But now, youngster, I have answered you freely, and I trow it is time that you answered me. Let things be plat and plain between us. I am a man who shoots straight at his mark.1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company

Adverb

plat (comparative more plat, superlative most plat)

  1. (obsolete except Scotland) Flatly, plainly.
    • Fourth, see [that] thou hide nothing, nor dissemble, but speak plat, and plainly as much as thou knowest.c. 1547‒1555, John Hooper, A Declaration of the Ten Commandments, published by the Parker Society in 1843
    • But single out, and say once plat and plain / That coy Matrona is a courtesan;c. 1584‒1656, Joseph Hall

Also used as

plat is also the clipping of platform.

plat is also the clipping of platform game.

plat meaning in Marathi

plat in Marathi

प्लॅट

Examples of plat in a sentence

  • O Blackbird! sing me something well: / While all the neighbours shoot thee round, / I keep smooth plats of fruitful ground, / Where thou may’st warble, eat, and dwell.1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Blackbird”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 208:
  • [W]e come to a spot which must have been a favorite resting-place for the poet, a low stone seat under a huge live oak, with a formal plat of grass and a stone seat opposite.1913 April, Lela Angier Lenfest, “The Garden of ‘The Rosary’”, in Sunset: The Pacific Monthly, volume 30, number 4, San Francisco, Calif....
  • The purpose of the preapplication conference is to allow the developer to meet informally with the planning board before going to the expense of preparing a formal plat.1982, Robert N[eil] Corley, Peter J. Shedd, Charles F. Floyd, Real Estate and the Law, New York, N.Y.: Business Division, Random House...
  • In 1877, a formal plat of the unincorporated village was published [...].2005 November 23, Aharon N. Varady, “Bond Hill, Ohio, 1870–1903”, in Bond Hill: Origin and Transformation of a 19th Century Cincinnati...

Synonyms of plat

Forms of plat

Noun
pluralplats
Verb
third-person singular presentplats
present participleplatting
past participleplatted
pastplatted
Adjective
comparativemore plat
superlativemost plat
Adverb
comparativemore plat
superlativemost plat

Plural of plat: plats

Origin of plat

The noun is derived from Middle English plat, platte (“flat part of a sword; flat piece of ground, plot of ground”), probably a variant of Middle English plot, (modern English plot) and influenced by Middle English plat, plate (modern English plate) and Anglo-Norman, Middle French and Old French plat. See platy-, plaice, flat. The verb is derived from the noun.

The noun is a variant of plait. The verb is from Middle English platte, English plat, respectively archaic past and past participle forms of English pleat (a variant of plait), Middle English platten (“to braid, weave; plait; to fold”).

From Middle English plat, plate, platte (“flat; smooth; blunt, plain”), from Anglo-Norman, Middle French, and Old French plat (“(adjective) flat, level; calm; blunt, plain; (adverb) in a flat position; directly, straight; bluntly, plainly”), from Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat; smooth”); further etymology uncertain, but possibly from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat; wide”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”). The English word is cognate with French plat, Italian piatto, Middle Dutch plat (modern Dutch plat (“flat”)), Middle High German blat, plat, Middle Low German plat (modern German platt (“flat”)), Old Danish plat (modern Danish plat), Old Occitan plat (modern Occitan plat), Old Swedish plat (modern Swedish platt); and is a doublet of flat and pleyt.

Words formed from plat

Phrases with plat

Words that rhyme with plat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about plat

What does plat mean?
Plat means a plot of land; a lot.
What is plat in Marathi?
Plat in Marathi is प्लॅट. See Plat meaning in Marathi.
How do you use plat in a sentence?
O Blackbird! sing me something well: / While all the neighbours shoot thee round, / I keep smooth plats of fruitful ground, / Where thou may’st warble, eat, and dwell.
What part of speech is plat?
Plat can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce plat?
Plat is pronounced /plæt/ (UK).
What is the plural of plat?
The plural of plat is plats.

Words near plat in the dictionary

  1. plastromantic
  2. plastron
  3. plastronal
  4. plastrons
  5. plastrum
  6. plat
  7. plat du jour
  8. plat-eye
  9. plat-eyes
  10. Plata
  11. platable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plat (page history and authors); plat (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-plat.wav, En-us-plat.ogg.

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