Word.ws English Dictionary

playing a role

playing a role is the present participle of play a role.

Meaning of play a role

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.
    • .
    Synonyms:
    play a part
  2. To portray a character in a performance.

Questions about playing a role

What is playing a role the present participle of?
Playing a role is the present participle of play a role.

Words near playing a role in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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