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

That’s why Araujo’s perch on the club level behind home plate is exposed to the crowd rather than enclosed, like the booths to his right used by the radio and TV broadcasters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026

“There were umpires in the Valley who trembled at the thought of being behind home plate with McDowell on the mound,” I wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026

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

One poor kid stood there long enough to hear strike one go past, then threw up all over home plate.

From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli