plea

American  

[plee] / pli /

noun

• pleas
  plural

1. an appeal or entreaty.

   a plea for mercy.

   Synonyms:

   suit, solicitation, supplication, petition, request

2. something that is alleged, urged, or pleaded in defense or justification.

3. an excuse; pretext.

   He begged off on the plea that his car wasn't working.

   Synonyms:

   justification

4. Law.

   1. an allegation made by, or on behalf of, a party to a legal suit, in support of their claim or defense.

   2. a defendant's answer to a legal declaration or charge.

   3. (in courts of equity) a plea that admits the truth of the declaration, but alleges special or new matter in avoidance.

   4. Obsolete. a suit or action.

---

idioms

1. cop a plea, cop.

plea British  

/ pliː /

noun

1. an earnest entreaty or request

   a plea for help

2. 1. law something alleged or pleaded by or on behalf of a party to legal proceedings in support of his claim or defence

   2. criminal law the answer made by an accused to the charge

      a plea of guilty

   3. (in Scotland and formerly in England) a suit or action at law

3. an excuse, justification, or pretext

   he gave the plea of a previous engagement

---

plea More Idioms  

1. see cop a plea.

---

Usage

What does plea mean? A plea is an intense request or appeal. It’s especially used to imply that the request is passionate and that the person doing the pleading is desperate. It’s especially used in serious situations. A person might make a plea to their friend to get help with an addiction. A kid might make a plea to their parents begging not to be grounded. In law, a plea is generally a defendant’s response to an accusation, as in a plea of guilty or not guilty. A plea-bargain is an agreement between a defendant and a prosecutor in which the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge. The slang phrase cop a plea refers to this and can be used in nonlegal contexts. To make a plea is to plead. Example: When I was a kid, I used to beg my mom not to make me go to the dentist, but she always ignored my pleas.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pleas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of plea

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English ple, earlier plaid from Old French, from early Medieval Latin placitum “law-court, suit, decision, decree,” Latin: “opinion” (literally, “that which is pleasing or agreeable”), placēre “to please”

Explanation

A plea is what you make when you're begging for something with a sense of urgency and emotion. While you wouldn't call asking for a hall pass a plea, you could make a plea for justice or world peace. Plea also has a legal meaning. When you get a traffic ticket or if you're accused of a crime, you have to enter a plea of "guilty" or "not guilty." A "plea bargain" is when you make a deal with the prosecutor — you may plead guilty to a charge (by entering a guilty plea) that has less of a penalty and, in return, the prosecutor drops the more serious charge.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

plea pleas

Reiner has pleaded not guilty to the stabbings and remains legally innocent unless he changes his plea or is convicted by a jury.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

“Today’s guilty plea makes clear that harming or harassing our marine wildlife has serious consequences.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

Mangione entered his plea Friday in the U.S.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

The expected plea potentially resolves the federal case just a month before Mangione is scheduled to go to trial in state court on murder and other charges.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

But what could it possibly have mattered to them that, after the broken treaty and Neto’s desperate plea for help, the Cubans were the only ones to answer it?

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Through May, prosecutors had charged fewer than four dozen people with crimes related to noncitizen voting, ProPublica’s analysis of DOJ data and federal court filings shows, getting convictions or guilty pleas in 14 cases.

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

Whatever was going on, nobody responded to Alcaraz’s desperate pleas for help and the shouts of the other inmates.

From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026

Savannah made public pleas on Monday and again on Saturday, six months after her mother was taken.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

Over the course of months, investigators made a couple of detentions and conducted a few searches as the Guthrie family made a series of emotional pleas to the kidnappers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

But their pleas went unheeded; the prospect of a national strategic advantage galvanized both the U.S.S.R. and the United States, and the nuclear arms race began.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Related Words

• appeal
• application
• entreaty
• overture
• petition
• prayer
• solicitation
• suit