Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use play in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Play means to act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment. Example: “The children played in the park.”

Examples of play by meaning

verbTo act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or...

  • The children played in the park.

verbTo toy or trifle; to act with levity or thoughtlessness; to be careless.

  • Don't play with your food!
  • He's just playing with her affections.

verbTo perform in (a sport); to participate in (a game).

  • He plays on three teams.
  • Who's playing now?
  • play football, play sports, play games

verbSpecifying a particular sporting role or position.

  • He plays left back for Mudchester Rovers

verbTo compete against, in a game.

  • We're playing one of the top teams in the next round.

verbTo act or behave in a stated way.

  • to play safe, to play fair, to play dirty

verbTo give a false appearance of being; to pretend to be.

  • He plays dumb, but actually he's very clever.
  • Don't play the innocent with us.
  • Playing hard to get is not the same as slamming the door in someone's face.1985, Sharon S. Brehm, Intimate Relationships

verbTo act as (the indicated role).

  • Stop playing the fool.
  • No part of the brain plays the role of permanent memory.
  • In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3

More sentences with play

  • He'd like to play the red next to the black spot, but that shot isn't on.From the entry on
  • You can go outside and play when you're finished with your homework.From the entry can
  • Jenny is a talented musician, playing the cello, saxophone, piano and guitar.From the entry musician
  • We were just playing, and then some big kids came and chased us away.From the entry big
  • The play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's early works.From the entry early
  • She loved my photos of the kids playing with the dogs.From the entry love
  • A good all-round golfer, playing out of bunkers is my Achilles heel.From the entry Achilles heel
  • There are thirteen cards of each of the four suits in a deck of playing cards.From the entry thirteen
  • I'm afraid little Robbie does not always play well with others.From the entry other
  • I played 18 holes yesterday. The second hole today cost me three strokes over par.From the entry hole
  • When your homework is complete, you can go and play with Martin.From the entry complete
  • My violin teacher used to play first chair with the Boston Pops.From the entry chair
  • I went to watch my favourite team play Real Madrid, but they thrashed us 5-0.From the entry us
  • I'll enjoy playing with my friends again, whether we win or lose.From the entry whether
  • They are down by 3–0 with just 5 minutes to play.From the entry down
  • I spent most of my time in the arcade playing pins.From the entry pin
  • They were done playing and were picking up the toys when he arrived.From the entry done
  • The college graduated him as soon as he was no longer eligible to play under NCAA rules.From the entry graduate
  • The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.From the entry hit
  • The government played the Orange card to get support for their Ireland policy.From the entry card
  • She played in a bridge tournament in Las Vegas last year.From the entry bridge
  • The main character's romantic interest will be played by a non-professional actor.From the entry interest
  • He played AA ball for years, but never made it to the show.From the entry show
  • The batter should play out the string. The pitcher should run out the string.From the entry string
  • The pivotal moment in the play was in the first scene of the second act.From the entry act

Meaning of play

  1. verb To act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment.
  2. verb To toy or trifle; to act with levity or thoughtlessness; to be careless.
  3. verb To perform in (a sport); to participate in (a game).

Full definition of play

Questions about play in a sentence

How do you use play in a sentence?
Play is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The children played in the park.”
What is a short sentence with play?
“Who's playing now?”
What does play mean?
Play means to act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: play (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use play in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/play. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.