placard
Americannoun
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placards
plural
-
a paperboard sign or notice, as one posted in a public place or carried by a demonstrator or picketer.
-
Armor. placate.
verb (used with object)
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placards,
present (3rd person singular)
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placarded,
past participle, past
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placarding
present participle
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to display placards on or in.
The square was placarded by peace marchers.
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to publicize, announce, or advertise by means of placards.
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to post as a placard.
noun
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a printed or written notice for public display; poster
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a small plaque or card
verb
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to post placards on or in
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to publicize or advertise by placards
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to display as a placard
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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placardsimple
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placardssimple
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have placardedperfect
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has placardedperfect
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am placardingprogressive
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are placardingprogressive
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is placardingprogressive
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have been placardingperfect progressive
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has been placardingperfect progressive
Past
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placardedsimple
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had placardedperfect
-
was placardingprogressive
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were placardingprogressive
-
had been placardingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of placard
Explanation
A placard is a sign, especially one that advertises something. You might get a summer job standing on the sidewalk, holding a placard that announces a mattress sale — though it may not be your dream job. A concert poster, a storefront notice, a protest sign carried in a rally — each of these is a type of placard. A placard can be as impermanent as a square of cardboard with a scrawled message, and as official as a permanent plaque marking a historic building. The Old French word plaquier is at the root of placard, and it means "to plaster or to lay flat."
Vocabulary lists containing placard
The Sun Is Also a Star
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves
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Johnny Tremain
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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:
"Let's occupy the streets, like in France!" a placard waved by one young female demonstrator urged, referring to the ongoing mass protests in that country for better classroom conditions.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
"Thank you for everything, we will never forget you," read a message on the candle, which accompanied flowers and a placard calling Abascal "the grandmother of an entire country".
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
Her pastries are displayed gallery-style on individual plates with placard descriptions, and customers can eat them in a serene ground-floor dining area or get them to-go.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
City of London Police said a 22-year-old woman was arrested for displaying a placard in support of a proscribed organisation, in this case Palestine Action, contrary to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2025
Doug ran the five uphill miles to a house with the placard: E. J. Plum, Attorney.
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
And all around it, most of the little placards identifying native plants are broken or missing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Trade unionists held placards with slogans such as “Our jobs aren’t your balance-sheet adjustment,” according to people present.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Young people draped in Indian flags queued for food, painted placards and posed for photographs, while rows of police and paramilitary personnel sealed every road to parliament around them.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
The protesters, many of them carrying the Ukrainian flags and placards expressing support for Fedorov, gathered in the capital for the second day running to protest the decision, an AFP journalist saw.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
A few carried placards the wording of which I couldn’t distinguish.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
The Ben Crump Law website is placarded with numerous recent cable news appearances, many conducted from his Tallahassee home during quarantine.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2020
Anti-aircraft guns blazed at imaginary targets with blank shells while firemen sprayed make-believe fires and first-aid crews bandaged the sound arms and legs of placarded "wounded."
From Time Magazine Archive
Five thousand special buses and 83 special trams stood by.Graham's advance guard placarded all Scotland with his picture.
From Time Magazine Archive
The influence of these placarded, shuffling men spread through the arteries of commerce.
From Time Magazine Archive
We placarded the whole college with posters announcing that Mme.
From The Camp Fire Girls on the Open Road or, Glorify Work by Hildegard G. (Hildegard Gertrude) Frey
The 'folly of the Cross,' the placarding of our human weakness, is something more intimate than the mere stripping off of outward paraphernalia.
From Time Magazine Archive
No speaker mentioned Adlai Stevenson, and his picture was not among the big portraits of party leaders placarding the hall.
From Time Magazine Archive
I venture to think the conjurers unwise in irritating the spiritualists, who are a growing body, by placarding their entertainment as exposés, even though such announcements may "draw" the non-spiritual public.
From Mystic London: or, Phases of occult life in the metropolis by Charles Maurice Davies
The company was sending men over Market Street, picking out the few individuals who owned vacant lots, leasing them for the month and preparing to justify the placarding and patrolling that already had been done.
From In the Heart of a Fool by William Allen White
It contented itself with placarding the manifesto, and neglected the smallest precautions, even that of occupying the railway station.
From History of the Commune of 1871 by P. Lissagary
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
