Word.ws English Dictionary

playception

playception noun: a play that portrays actors staging a play or features an internal play; a play-within-a-play.

Noun

playception (plural playceptions)

  1. (slang) A play that portrays actors staging a play or features an internal play; a play-within-a-play.
    • Playception: Each actor must portray a character playing another character.2012, Maura Breen, "Latest play presents challenge for actors", Tan & Cardinal (Otterbein University), Volume 94, Issue 5, 26 September 2012, page 4 (image caption)
    • "[title of show]" tells the story about two guys writing a play about two guys who are writing a play. You get a play-ception sort of feel watching this performance.2016, Katherine Bauer, "[title of show] plays off of reality in playwrights' struggles toward success", The Times-Delphic (Drake University), 2 March 2016, page 8

Forms of playception

pluralplayceptions
alternative formplay-ception

Origin of playception

From play + -ception.

Questions about playception

What does playception mean?
Playception means a play that portrays actors staging a play or features an internal play; a play-within-a-play.
What part of speech is playception?
Playception is a noun.
What is the plural of playception?
The plural of playception is playceptions.

Words near playception in the dictionary

  1. playcart
  2. playcenter
  3. playcenters
  4. playcentre
  5. playcentres
  6. playception
  7. playceptions
  8. playclothes
  9. playcount
  10. playcounts
  11. playcraft

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playception (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:

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