Word.ws English Dictionary

plate

/ˈpleɪ̯t/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈplæ̝ɪ̯t/

plate noun: a slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.

plate: a slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten
Image: Egan Snow, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

plate (countable and uncountable, plural plates)

  1. A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.
    • I filled my plate from the bountiful table.
  2. (uncountable) Such dishes collectively.
    • A valuable collection of silver plate was donated to the museum.
  3. The contents of such a dish.
    • I ate a plate of beans.
  4. A course at a meal.
    • The meat plate was particularly tasty.
  5. (figuratively) An agenda of tasks, problems, or responsibilities
    • With revenues down and transfer payments up, the legislature has a full plate.
  6. A flat object of uniform thickness.
    • The most important and most expensive part of any solar cell is a silicon plate.
  7. (Australia, especially, metonymically, plural, plural-only) Vehicle license plates, registration plates.
    • He stole a car and changed the plates as soon as he could.
    Synonyms:
    rego plates
  8. A taxi permit, especially of a metal disc.
  9. (historical) Plate armor.
    • He was confronted by two knights in full plate.
    • He hewd, and lasht, and foynd, and thondred blowes,
      And euery way did seeke into his life,
      Ne plate, ne male could ward so mighty throwes,
      But yeilded passage to his cruell knife.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 248
  10. A layer of a material on the surface of something, usually qualified by the type of the material; plating
    • The bullets just bounced off the steel plate on its hull.
  11. A material covered with such a layer.
    • If you're not careful, someone will sell you silverware that's really only silver plate.
  12. (dated) An ornamental or food service item coated with silver or gold or otherwise decorated.
    • The tea was served in the plate.
    • The silver ore of pure Charity is an expensive article in the catalogue of a man's good Qualities—whereas the sentimental French Plate I use instead of it makes just as good a shew—and pays no tax.1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, V.i
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  1. A weighted disk, usually of metal, with a hole in the center for use with a barbell, dumbbell, or exercise machine.
  2. An engraved surface used to transfer an image to paper.
    • We finished making the plates this morning.
    • "Do you really mean me to go on with plates for all the high values up to the thousand pound printing?"1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
  3. An image or copy.
  4. An illustration in a book, either black and white, or colour, usually on a page of paper of different quality from the text pages.
  5. A shaped and fitted surface, usually ceramic or metal that fits into the mouth and in which teeth are implanted; a dental plate.
  6. A horizontal framing member at the top or bottom of a group of vertical studs.
  7. (Cockney, slang) A person's foot.
    • Sit down and give your plates a rest.
  8. Home plate.
    • There was a close play at the plate.
  9. A tectonic plate.
    • Our planet's crust is split into eight major plates and many minor plates.2012, Chinle Miller, In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition
  10. Any of various larger scales found in some reptiles.
  11. A flat electrode such as can be found in an accumulator battery, or in an electrolysis tank.
  12. The anode of a vacuum tube.
    • Regulating the oscillator plate voltage greatly improves the keying.
  13. A prize given to the winner in a contest.
  14. Any flat piece of material such as coated glass or plastic.
  15. (dated) A metallic card, used to imprint tickets with an airline's logo, name, and numeric code.
  16. (broadly) The ability of a travel agent to issue tickets on behalf of a particular airline.
  17. (Australia) A VIN plate, particularly with regard to the car's year of manufacture.
  18. One of the thin parts of the brisket of an animal.
  19. A very light steel horseshoe for racehorses.
  20. (furriers' slang) Skins for fur linings of garments, sewn together and roughly shaped, but not finally cut or fitted.
  21. (hat-making) The fine nap (as of beaver, musquash, etc.) on a hat whose body is made from inferior material.
  22. A record, usually vinyl.
  23. trauma plate.
    • The SAPI plate in his vest protected him from the bullet's impact.
  24. (slang) Any of the potential romantic or sexual partners with whom a person keeps in touch as part of plate spinning.
    • More plates means more dates!
  25. A Lego piece that is thin, 1/3 the height of a brick, and has studs on top.

Verb

plate (third-person singular simple present plates, present participle plating, simple past and past participle plated)

  1. (transitive) To cover the surface material of an object with a thin coat of another material, usually a metal.
    • This ring is plated with a thin layer of gold.
  2. (transitive) To place the various elements of a meal on the diner's plate prior to serving.
    • After preparation, the chef will plate the dish.
    • I took her for sushi, she wanted to fuck / So we took it to go, told 'em don't even plate it2011, “HYFR”, in Take Care, performed by Drake ft. Lil Wayne
  3. (transitive) To score a run.
    • The single plated the runner from second base.
  4. (transitive) To arm or defend with metal plates.
  5. (transitive) To beat into thin plates.
  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. (transitive) To categorize stamps based on their position on the original sheet, in order to reconstruct an entire sheet.
  8. (transitive) To identify the printing plate used, particularly with early British stamps.

Noun (2)

plate (usually uncountable, plural plates)

  1. (usually) Precious metal, especially silver.
    • At every meal—and I have heard the meals at Petleighcote were neither abundant nor succulent—enough plate stood upon the table to pay for the feeding of the poor of the whole county for a month1864, Andrew Forrester, The Female Detective
    • At the northern extremity of this chill province the gold plate of the Groans, pranked across the shining black of the long table, smoulders as though it contains fire[…]1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC

Noun (3)

plate (plural plates)

  1. (obsolete) Silver or gold, in the form of a coin, or less often silver or gold utensils or dishes.
    • […] realms and islands were
      As plates dropp’d from his pocket.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  2. A roundel of silver or argent.

Proper noun capitalized: Plate

the Plate

  1. The River Plate.
    • […]; but the tributary waters of the Plate issuing from the eastern and western plateaus, flow towards each other, unite in the heart of the continent, and continue over the central plain to the Atlantic.1832, David Brewster, editor, The Edinburgh Encyclopædia, volume 17, page 288
    • To the southwest 235 miles of Uruguay's coast meet the muddy waters of the Plate. The tide plays tricks with the sediment-laden discharge of the great river and drives it back onto the coast, […]1947, Betty de Sherbinin, The River Plate republics, page 221

plate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

plate in Hindi

flat dish
प्लेट pleṭ, रकाबी rakābī, थाली thālī

plate in Tamil

flat dish
தட்டு taṭṭu

plate in Marathi

to plate, cover; adorn
मढणे maḍhṇe

plate in Urdu

flat dish
پْلیٹ pleṭ, رَکابی rakābī, رَکاب rakāb, تھال thāl, قاب qāb
More languagesFewer languages
plate in Bengali
থালা thala, তশতরী tośtori, রেকাবী rekabi, পিরিচ piric
plate in Telugu
పళ్ళెము paḷḷemu, విస్తరి vistari, అంట aṇṭa, విస్తరాకులు vistarākulu
plate in Malayalam
പാത്രം pātraṁ, പൂശുക pūśuka
plate in Kannada
ಅಗಲು, ಹರಿಯಣ, ಹರಿವಾಣ, ತಟ್ಟೆ
plate in Punjabi
ਪਲੇਟ, ਪਲੇਟ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
plate in Gujarati
થાળી thāḷī
plate in Odia
ଥାଲ thāla, ଥାଳି thāḷi
plate in Assamese
প্লে'ট ple'to
plate in Nepali
थाल thāl
plate in Pashto
بشقاب bošqãb, قاب qāb, تينګړی tingṛáy
plate in Tagalog
plato, pinggan
plate in Arabic
طَبَق ṭabaq, صَحْن ṣaḥn, طبق ṭabaʔ, صحن ṣaḥn
plate in Malay
pinggan
plate in Indonesian
piring, pinggan
plate in Persian
بُشْقَاب bušqāb, قَاب qāb, بُشْقاب bošġâb, قاب ġâb
plate in Thai
จาน jaan
plate in Vietnamese
dĩa, mạ
plate in Myanmar
ပန်းကန် pan:kan

Examples of plate in a sentence

  • I wanted a plate of shrimp, not a bucket of chicken.
  • He pushed his empty plate away, sighed and pronounced "I am done."
  • Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry.

All 40 example sentences with plate

Synonyms of plate

Forms of plate

Noun
pluralplates
Verb
third-person singular presentplates
present participleplating
past participleplated
pastplated

Past tense of plate: plated

Plural of plate: plates

Origin of plate

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".

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

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”).

Words formed from plate

Phrases with plate

151 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with plate

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about plate

What does plate mean?
Plate means a slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.
What is plate in Hindi?
Plate in Hindi is प्लेट (pleṭ), रकाबी (rakābī), थाली (thālī). See Plate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is plate?
Plate can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce plate?
Plate is pronounced /ˈpleɪ̯t/ (UK).
What is the plural of plate?
The plural of plate is plates.

Words near plate in the dictionary

  1. Platases
  2. plataspid
  3. plataspids
  4. platband
  5. platbands
  6. plate
  7. plate appearance
  8. plate appearances
  9. plate armor
  10. plate armour
  11. plate armours

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plate (page history and authors); Plate (page history and authors); मढणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); అంట (Telugu) (page history and authors); plate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); plate (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); થાળી (Gujarati) (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-plate.ogg, En-uk-a plate.ogg, en-au-plate.ogg.

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