"playa" meaning in English

See playa in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈplaɪə/ [US] Forms: playas [plural]
Rhymes: -aɪə Etymology: From Spanish playa (“beach”). Doublet of plage. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|es|playa|t=beach}} Spanish playa (“beach”), {{doublet|en|plage}} Doublet of plage Head templates: {{en-noun}} playa (plural playas)
  1. (geology, US) A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely. Tags: US Categories (topical): Geology Hyponyms: salt flat, salt pan, alkali flat Derived forms: playa lake
    Sense id: en-playa-en-noun-TYvjyXjf Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 34 28 38 Topics: geography, geology, natural-sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Noun

IPA: /ˈpleɪə/ [US] Audio: En-au-playa.ogg Forms: playas [plural]
Rhymes: -eɪə Etymology: From a non-rhotic pronunciation of player. Head templates: {{en-noun}} playa (plural playas)
  1. (African-American Vernacular, slang) A dude (an informal term of address or general term to describe a person, typically male). Tags: slang Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-playa-en-noun-c0pnJliJ Disambiguation of People: 6 57 37 Categories (other): African-American Vernacular English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 34 28 38
  2. (African-American Vernacular, slang) A player (someone who plays the field, or has prowess in gaining romantic and sexual relationships). Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-playa-en-noun-ekqOuKXO Categories (other): African-American Vernacular English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 34 28 38
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "es",
        "3": "playa",
        "t": "beach"
      },
      "expansion": "Spanish playa (“beach”)",
      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "plage"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of plage",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Spanish playa (“beach”). Doublet of plage.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "playas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "playa (plural playas)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Geology",
          "orig": "en:Geology",
          "parents": [
            "Earth sciences",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 28 38",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "playa lake"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2020, Diane Cook, The New Wilderness, Oneworld Publications, page 66:",
          "text": "Beyond the valley below lay a playa, a vast dried-white lake bed, its ends reaching farther than they could see.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 September 3, Michael Sainato, “Officials investigate death at Burning Man as thousands stranded by floods”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "“We are also deploying buses to Gerlach to take people to Reno who might walk off the playa. See our recommendations on when walking is viable or not. This is not likely a 24-hour operation at this time.”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely."
      ],
      "hyponyms": [
        {
          "word": "salt flat"
        },
        {
          "word": "salt pan"
        },
        {
          "word": "alkali flat"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-playa-en-noun-TYvjyXjf",
      "links": [
        [
          "geology",
          "geology"
        ],
        [
          "level",
          "level"
        ],
        [
          "area",
          "area"
        ],
        [
          "habitually",
          "habitually"
        ],
        [
          "fill",
          "fill"
        ],
        [
          "water",
          "water"
        ],
        [
          "evaporate",
          "evaporate"
        ],
        [
          "entirely",
          "entirely"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(geology, US) A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "geography",
        "geology",
        "natural-sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈplaɪə/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪə"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "playa"
  ],
  "word": "playa"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_text": "From a non-rhotic pronunciation of player.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "playas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "playa (plural playas)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "African-American Vernacular English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 28 38",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 57 37",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A dude (an informal term of address or general term to describe a person, typically male)."
      ],
      "id": "en-playa-en-noun-c0pnJliJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "dude",
          "dude"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "African-American Vernacular",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(African-American Vernacular, slang) A dude (an informal term of address or general term to describe a person, typically male)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "African-American Vernacular English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 28 38",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 27:",
          "text": "What Pimp was asking me to do was crazy. Off the fuckin' chain. Insane. He was scheming to stick up T.C. and Miss Lady's pool hall so we could pay off G, but a playa like me was getting ready to go to college and put all that two-bit robbing and stealing shit behind me.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Zadie Smith, NW, London: Penguin Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 151:",
          "text": "In the end, all the things Grace claimed to like about Marlon—that he was not a ‘playa’, that he was gentle and awkward and not interested in money—were all the reasons she left him.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A player (someone who plays the field, or has prowess in gaining romantic and sexual relationships)."
      ],
      "id": "en-playa-en-noun-ekqOuKXO",
      "links": [
        [
          "player",
          "player"
        ],
        [
          "plays the field",
          "play the field#English"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "African-American Vernacular",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(African-American Vernacular, slang) A player (someone who plays the field, or has prowess in gaining romantic and sexual relationships)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈpleɪə/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-playa.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/03/En-au-playa.ogg/En-au-playa.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/En-au-playa.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-eɪə"
    }
  ],
  "word": "playa"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English doublets",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms borrowed from Spanish",
    "English terms derived from Spanish",
    "Pages with 6 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪə",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪə/2 syllables",
    "Rhymes:English/eɪə",
    "Rhymes:English/eɪə/2 syllables",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "playa lake"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "es",
        "3": "playa",
        "t": "beach"
      },
      "expansion": "Spanish playa (“beach”)",
      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "plage"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of plage",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Spanish playa (“beach”). Doublet of plage.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "playas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "playa (plural playas)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyponyms": [
    {
      "word": "salt flat"
    },
    {
      "word": "salt pan"
    },
    {
      "word": "alkali flat"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Geology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2020, Diane Cook, The New Wilderness, Oneworld Publications, page 66:",
          "text": "Beyond the valley below lay a playa, a vast dried-white lake bed, its ends reaching farther than they could see.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 September 3, Michael Sainato, “Officials investigate death at Burning Man as thousands stranded by floods”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "“We are also deploying buses to Gerlach to take people to Reno who might walk off the playa. See our recommendations on when walking is viable or not. This is not likely a 24-hour operation at this time.”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "geology",
          "geology"
        ],
        [
          "level",
          "level"
        ],
        [
          "area",
          "area"
        ],
        [
          "habitually",
          "habitually"
        ],
        [
          "fill",
          "fill"
        ],
        [
          "water",
          "water"
        ],
        [
          "evaporate",
          "evaporate"
        ],
        [
          "entirely",
          "entirely"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(geology, US) A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "geography",
        "geology",
        "natural-sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈplaɪə/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪə"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "playa"
  ],
  "word": "playa"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 6 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/eɪə",
    "Rhymes:English/eɪə/2 syllables",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_text": "From a non-rhotic pronunciation of player.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "playas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "playa (plural playas)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "African-American Vernacular English",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A dude (an informal term of address or general term to describe a person, typically male)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "dude",
          "dude"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "African-American Vernacular",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(African-American Vernacular, slang) A dude (an informal term of address or general term to describe a person, typically male)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "African-American Vernacular English",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 27:",
          "text": "What Pimp was asking me to do was crazy. Off the fuckin' chain. Insane. He was scheming to stick up T.C. and Miss Lady's pool hall so we could pay off G, but a playa like me was getting ready to go to college and put all that two-bit robbing and stealing shit behind me.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Zadie Smith, NW, London: Penguin Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 151:",
          "text": "In the end, all the things Grace claimed to like about Marlon—that he was not a ‘playa’, that he was gentle and awkward and not interested in money—were all the reasons she left him.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A player (someone who plays the field, or has prowess in gaining romantic and sexual relationships)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "player",
          "player"
        ],
        [
          "plays the field",
          "play the field#English"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "African-American Vernacular",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(African-American Vernacular, slang) A player (someone who plays the field, or has prowess in gaining romantic and sexual relationships)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈpleɪə/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-playa.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/03/En-au-playa.ogg/En-au-playa.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/En-au-playa.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-eɪə"
    }
  ],
  "word": "playa"
}

Download raw JSONL data for playa meaning in English (4.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (1c4b89b and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.