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• player
  player

  noun

  a person or thing that plays.
• Player
  Player

  noun

  Gary, born 1935, South African golfer.

player

¹ American  

[pley-er] / ˈpleɪ ər /

noun

players plural

1. a person or thing that plays.

2. a person who takes part or is skilled in some game or sport.

3. a person who plays parts on the stage; an actor.

4. a performer on a musical instrument.

5. Informal. a participant, as in a conference or business deal.

6. a machine or piece of software that reproduces sound or images: a videodisc player;

   a record player;

   a videodisc player;

   a digital media player.

7. a gambler.

8. Slang. a person engaged in illicit or illegal activity, especially a pimp.

9. a mechanical device by which a musical instrument, as a player piano, is played automatically.

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Player ² American  

[pley-er] / ˈpleɪ ər /

noun

1. Gary, born 1935, South African golfer.

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player ¹ British  

/ ˈpleɪə /

noun

1. a person who participates in or is skilled at some game or sport

2. a person who plays a game or sport professionally

3. a person who plays a musical instrument

4. an actor

5. informal a participant, esp a powerful one, in a particular field of activity

   a leading city player

6. See record player

7. the playing mechanism in a Pianola

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Player ² British  

/ ˈpleɪə /

noun

1. Gary (ˈɡærɪ). born 1935, South African golfer: winner of nine major championships (1959–78), including the British Open (1959, 1968, 1974)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• counterplayer
  noun
• nonplayer
  noun
• self-player
  noun
• superplayer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• players
  plural

Etymology

Origin of player

before 1000; Middle English pleyer, Old English plegere. See play, -er ¹

Explanation

If you like to play anything at all, you’re a player. If you take part in a game or sport, you're a player. If you're a big flirt, you’re a player. Like the kazoo? You’re a kazoo player. Play on! Some players play cards or tennis, and others play roles in theater productions. You could also call a musician a player, like a piano player or a flute player. Vital or influential people (or groups) are sometimes described this way too: "The president called a meeting of all the biggest political players." And finally, there are inanimate players, like music or radio players, or an MP3 player.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

player Player players

In two more tournaments as a player, he never got past the quarterfinals and in two World Cups as a manager he made the semifinals once.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026

But if no player comes through the system, it could be a necessity.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

“What’s important is that it doesn’t replace the physical play. You want the technology to animate the player and to be shareable. If the Smart Play technology achieves that, it’ll be very sustainable.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

Too often, soccer institutions seem willing to tolerate serious allegations when the player in question remains valuable on the field.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026

He’d never used one before, but he’d pretended to be a knight, a Jedi, even a baseball player.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova

Deployed in that role, Gordon was named the Player of the Tournament as England won the European Under-21 Championship in 2023, scoring two goals and assisting another.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

Soccer’s Young Player of the Year—and an obvious pick for Qatar.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Cole Palmer, the Chelsea playmaker who was named Best Player at last summer’s Club World Cup, was among those left out of England’s squad.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026

Among the hundreds of surgeries performed over three decades by ElAttrache, his patients included the four 2024 MLB Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winners — Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026

Then I hit the flashing Player One button.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

In the All-Star Game, the players were hitless and the pitcher served up the only home run.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026

"The players are currently taking part in a warm-up session indoors."

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

The problem for this World Cup is players are competing under active charges or investigations.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026

Startups are frequently selling stakes at one valuation and then quickly raising more capital at far higher prices—a reflection of the bargaining power companies have over investors scrambling to invest in the leading AI players.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

For example, there are 400 different possible positions after two players make one move each, and there are 72,084 positions after two moves each—not all good, it must be added.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Related Words

• athlete
• competitor
• member
• opponent
• participant
• pro
• professional
• rookie