Word.ws English Dictionary

pleat

/pliːt/

pleat noun: a fold in the fabric of a garment, usually a skirt, as a part of the design of the garment, with the purpose of adding controlled fullness and freedom of movement, or taking up excess fabric. There are many types of pleats, differing in their construction and appearance.

pleat: a fold in the fabric of a garment, usually a skirt, as a part of the design of the garment, with...
Image: Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pleat (plural pleats)

  1. A fold in the fabric of a garment, usually a skirt, as a part of the design of the garment, with the purpose of adding controlled fullness and freedom of movement, or taking up excess fabric. There are many types of pleats, differing in their construction and appearance.
  2. A similar fold in a filter, lampshade, or various other products.
  3. A fold in an organ, usually a longitudinal fold in a long leaf such as that of palmetto, lending it stiffness.
  4. A plait.

Verb

pleat (third-person singular simple present pleats, present participle pleating, simple past and past participle pleated)

  1. (transitive) To form one or more pleats in a piece of fabric or a garment.
    Synonyms:
    ruffle
  2. To plait.
    • pleat my hair

Proper noun capitalized: Pleat

Pleat (plural Pleats)

  1. A surname.

pleat meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

pleat in Tamil

மடிப்பு

pleat in Urdu

چنٹ, مینڈھی, شکن

pleat in Bengali

কাপড়ের ভাঁজ

pleat in Malayalam

crease, fold, gather
ഒടി, മടക്ക്, ചുരുക്ക്, ഞെറി, ഞൊറി, ഞൊറിവ്
More languagesFewer languages
pleat in Kannada
ನಿರಿಗೆ, ಮಡಿಕೆ

Examples of pleat in a sentence

  • Paper fans generally use an accordion pleat.
  • To make a pleat, double the material at the waist.
  • The First Class compartments featured full-width mirrors, pleated curtains, folding tables, abstract murals, and teak veneering.

All 24 example sentences with pleat

Synonyms of pleat

Forms of pleat

Noun
pluralpleats
Verb
third-person singular presentpleats
present participlepleating
past participlepleated
pastpleated
Proper noun
pluralPleats

Origin of pleat

From Middle English, from a variant of plait, from Old French pleit. Doublet of plait.

Words formed from pleat

Words that rhyme with pleat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pleat

What does pleat mean?
Pleat means a fold in the fabric of a garment, usually a skirt, as a part of the design of the garment, with the purpose of adding controlled fullness and freedom of movement, or taking up excess fabric. There are many types of pleats, differing in their construction and appearance.
What is pleat in Tamil?
Pleat in Tamil is மடிப்பு. See Pleat meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is pleat?
Pleat can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pleat?
Pleat is pronounced /pliːt/.
What is the plural of pleat?
The plural of pleat is pleats.

Words near pleat in the dictionary

  1. pleasurized
  2. pleasurizes
  3. pleasurizing
  4. pleasurous
  5. pleasy
  6. pleat
  7. pleatable
  8. pleated
  9. pleated snowdrop
  10. pleater
  11. pleaters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pleat (page history and authors); Pleat (page history and authors); pleat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pleat (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pleat (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pleat (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); pleat (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pleat.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-pleat.wav.

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