Word.ws English Dictionary

plays a role

plays a role is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 plays a role

What is plays a role the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Plays a role is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play a role.

Words near plays a role in the dictionary

  1. playrights
  2. playroom
  3. playrooms
  4. plays
  5. plays a part
  6. plays a role
  7. plays a rôle
  8. plays about
  9. plays against type
  10. plays all one's cards
  11. plays along

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plays 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: “plays a role.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plays_a_role. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.