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:
The interplay between them lacks the razor sharpness that should animate their scenes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
History is the result of the interplay of those great trends and the intervention of individuals and their acts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 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
Considered and considerate, formal at every turn, they were shut out and shut off from the deep interplay of their minds.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
"The goal is eventually to even study the interplays of different signaling pathways simultaneously."
From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2024
Chiuri’s interplays of architectural silhouettes and innovative materials were out in force for a diverse collection that had a lot to say, seamlessly intertwining historical richness with the contemporary.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
