interplay
Americannoun
-
interplays
plural
verb (used without object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of interplay
Explanation
Interplay is a kind of back-and-forth interaction in which each side affects the other. A beautiful piece of music has the perfect interplay between melody, rhythm, and harmony. You can think of interplay as if you're watching an actual play on a stage: the way two characters communicate, whether they're cooperating or clashing with each other, is a kind of interplay. This word is often used in a less concrete way, so you might hear a sociologist talk about the interplay between race and class or a film critic discuss the interplay between violence and comedy in a movie.
Vocabulary lists containing interplay
"Simplexity" by Jeffrey Kluger
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A Hero's Guide to Summer Vacation
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"Why Read Shakespeare?" by Michael Mack
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
More than that, though, there was the person-to-person interplay: jokes about who’s taller, jokes about who’s the better singer, jokes about who knows the difference between La Cienega and La Brea.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
His latest book examines leaders in government, business and other fields to determine how the interplay of personal talent and historical circumstance shapes success or failure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
"Monotile patterns provide a platform for exploring optical phenomena that emerge from the interplay of symmetry, chirality, and aperiodicity."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
The two leads share an easy interplay, giving generous performances that allow the other to shine in a comedy that wears its message about tolerance and nuance lightly.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
Therefore, there is very little room for the interplay of the Laws, and my one method of attack is virtually useless.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
"The goal is eventually to even study the interplays of different signaling pathways simultaneously."
From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2024
From utilitarian details that ground regal aesthetics in the contemporary to surreal interplays of form and texture, the collections celebrated the industry’s ability to innovate while honoring its past.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2024
The set designer, Varvara Timofeeva, and the costume designer, Marie-Thérèse Jossen, are developing sleek, minimalist interplays of black, white, gray and blood red.
From New York Times ● May 25, 2023
The design reflects the traditional hand-crafted bowls found across the Arab and Islamic world while interplays of light mirror the fanar lanterns of the region.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2022
There are subtle interplays of delicate forces and reactions from environment which no one can measure.
From Our Foreigners A Chronicle of Americans in the Making by Samuel Peter Orth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
