home plate

American  

noun

Baseball.

• home plates
  plural

1. the base at which the batter stands and which a base runner must reach safely in order to score a run, typically a five-sided slab of whitened rubber set at ground level at the front corner of the diamond.

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home plate British  

noun

1. Also called: plate.   home.   home base.  baseball a flat often five-sided piece of hard rubber or other material that serves to define the area over which the pitcher must throw the ball for a strike and that a base runner must safely reach on his way from third base to score a run

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• home plates
  plural

Etymology

Origin of home plate

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

home plate

Báez, now 23, pulverized the very first pitch he saw as a big-leaguer over the center-field fence, a titanic blast that landed 449 feet away from home plate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

All the tickets in Irvine put you right behind home plate, because there are barely 1,000 seats.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

After putting down the tag, and spotting the home plate umpire’s safe motion, Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing immediately pointed to the Dodgers’ dugout, urging manager Dave Roberts to challenge the call.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026

A fan sitting behind home plate at the Dodgers-Athletics game Tuesday night really had his head in the game — but not the game he was attending.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

And when the team wins, when the team gets the needed hits and the runs flood across home plate, the love is returned, and there is satisfaction.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers