license plate

American  

noun

• license plates
  plural

1. a plate or tag, usually of metal, bearing evidence of official registration and permission, as for the use of a motor vehicle.

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license plate British  

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): numberplate.  a plate mounted on the front and back of a motor vehicle bearing the registration number

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• license plates
  plural

Etymology

Origin of license plate

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

license plate

Flock Safety claims over 5,000 law enforcement agencies use its license plate readers to help locate missing persons, catch thieves and identify suspicious vehicles.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

The company is most known for its camera network, which extracts data about cars from photographs and allows operators to search for vehicles by description or license plate number.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

Instead they take still images of vehicles, capturing the make, model, color, license plate data and other distinguishing features such as bumper stickers.

From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026

A license plate circulated on chat networks, and agents later swapped it out.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

I grab a license plate off the line.

From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz