Word.ws English Dictionary

play a part

play a part verb: to be involved in such a way to affect the outcome, to be a contributing factor.

Verb

play a part (third-person singular simple present plays a part, present participle playing a part, simple past and past participle played a part)

  1. (idiomatic) To be involved in such a way to affect the outcome, to be a contributing factor.
    • I'd like to play a part in the initial design.
    • The roads were foggy during the accident but alcohol may have also played a part.
    Synonyms:
    play a role, have an effect

Synonyms of play a part

Forms of play a part

third-person singular presentplays a part
present participleplaying a part
past participleplayed a part
pastplayed a part

Questions about play a part

What does play a part mean?
Play a part means to be involved in such a way to affect the outcome, to be a contributing factor.
What part of speech is play a part?
Play a part is a verb.
What is the past tense of play a part?
The past tense of play a part is played a part.

Words near play a part in the dictionary

  1. plaw
  2. plaws
  3. Plawsworth
  4. play
  5. play a double game
  6. play a part
  7. play a role
  8. play a rôle
  9. play about
  10. play against type
  11. play all one's cards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: play a part (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: En-au-play a part.ogg.

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