plaza

American  

[plah-zuh, plaz-uh] / ˈplɑ zə, ˈplæz ə /

noun

• plazas
  plural

1. a public square or open space in a city or town.

2. shopping plaza.

3. an area along an expressway where public facilities, as service stations and restrooms, are available.

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plaza British  

/ ˈplaθa, ˈplɑːzə /

noun

1. an open space or square, esp in Spain or a Spanish-speaking country

2. 1. a modern complex of shops, buildings, and parking areas

   2. ( capital when part of a name )

      Rockefeller Plaza

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• plazas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of plaza

First recorded in 1675–85; from Spanish, from Latin platea “street,” from Greek plateîa “broad street”; see place

Explanation

A plaza is an urban park or square, or another public space where people can walk, sit, and congregate. You might, for example, tell your friend to meet you in the plaza downtown with the big horse statue. There are plazas that are mainly open spaces for pedestrians, sometimes including statues, fountains, and benches, like Washington DC's Freedom Plaza or Union Square in New York. Other plazas are more commercial, offering room to stroll and sit but also stores and restaurants. In Spanish, plaza simply means "place," and the earliest plazas were built in Spanish colonies in South America and the East Indies.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

plaza plazas

Often, he was told, immigrants aren’t given the chance to call family members before they’re released, and are dropped off at a nearby plaza, often with uncharged cellphones or no phone at all.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026

"We're all pretty frustrated because the government is not showing what it should – a serious display of help," she says in a plaza just a block away from two collapsed buildings.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026

Silva, a housewife, rests on a bench in the plaza, a few meters from a military checkpoint.

From Barron's ● May 18, 2026

On Nov. 1, Quiroz and the kids joined him in the plaza, which was filled with candles and thousands of people.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026

As he mounted the steps to the Monk Building’s broad front plaza, Reynie saw two girls well ahead of him, walking together toward the front doors.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

Camps for families left homeless have sprung up in stadiums, plazas and on sidewalks in La Guaira as well as nearby Caracas.

From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026

The walkways will be interspersed with plazas, small parks and exercise stations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026

She declared that Wednesday would be a holiday for everyone except essential workers, “so our youth can go out to the streets, the plazas, the parks and ballfields to celebrate.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026

On one of the city’s tree-lined plazas, Lia Mashaka runs a business helping Americans move to the Mediterranean city, from navigating visas to finding a pediatrician.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026

It cracks me up how expensive restaurants, located in what are basically outdoor shopping plazas, give themselves these snooty, fancy names.

From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper

Related Words

• park
• square