playa

[ plahy-uh ]

noun
  1. Western U.S. the sandy, salty, or mud-caked flat floor of a desert basin having interior drainage, usually occupied by a shallow lake during or after prolonged, heavy rains.

Origin of playa

1
1850–55, Americanism;<Spanish: shore <Late Latin plagia;see plage

Words Nearby playa

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use playa in a sentence

  • But finding nothing, he passed on to playa Honda, where he arrived late, more than two hours after the sun had risen.

  • Then he went to Buquil and did the same as in playa-Honda, breaking and burning all the instruments of their idolatries.

  • In the wet season the playa is covered with a thin sheet of muddy water, a playa lake, supplied usually by some stream at flood.

    The Elements of Geology | William Harmon Norton

British Dictionary definitions for playa

playa

/ (ˈplɑːjə, Spanish ˈplaja) /


noun
  1. (in the US) a temporary lake, or its dry often salty bed, in a desert basin

Origin of playa

1
Spanish: shore, from Late Latin plagia, from Greek plagios slanting, from plagos side; compare French plage beach

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for playa

playa

[ plīə ]


  1. A dry lake bed at the bottom of a desert basin, sometimes temporarily covered with water. Playas have no vegetation and are among the flattest geographical features in the world. Also called sink

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.