Word.ws English Dictionary

play a role

play a role verb: to have an effect or influence on a situation or outcome; to contribute to something.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To have an effect or influence on a situation or outcome; to contribute to something.
    • .
    • She played a role in organizing the protest.
    Synonyms:
    play a part
  2. To portray a character in a performance.

Synonyms of play a role

Forms of play a role

third-person singular presentplays a role
present participleplaying a role
past participleplayed a role
pastplayed a role
alternative form (dated)play a rôle

Questions about play a role

What does play a role mean?
Play a role means to have an effect or influence on a situation or outcome; to contribute to something.
What part of speech is play a role?
Play a role is a verb.
What is the past tense of play a role?
The past tense of play a role is played a role.

Words near play a role in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: play a role (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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