Word.ws English Dictionary

playing a part

playing a part is the present participle and gerund of play a part.

Meaning of play a part

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.
    Synonyms:
    play a role, have an effect

Questions about playing a part

What is playing a part the present participle and gerund of?
Playing a part is the present participle and gerund of play a part.

Words near playing a part in the dictionary

  1. playhouse
  2. playhouses
  3. playin
  4. playin'
  5. playing
  6. playing a part
  7. playing a role
  8. playing a rôle
  9. playing about
  10. playing against type
  11. playing all one's cards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing a part (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “playing a part.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/playing_a_part. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.