platter
Americannoun
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platters
plural
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a large, shallow dish, usually elliptical in shape, for holding and serving food, especially meat or fish.
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a course of a meal, usually consisting of a variety of foods served on the same plate.
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Slang. a phonograph record.
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Computers. a hard disk, the rigid circular plate that rotates on a spindle within a hard disk drive, for data encoding and retrieval.
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Movie Slang. a part of a motion-picture projector, consisting of a large, horizontally rotating disk that houses a feature film.
noun
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a large shallow usually oval dish or plate, used for serving food
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a course of a meal, usually consisting of several different foods served on the same plate
a seafood platter
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of platter
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English plater, from Anglo-French, derivative of plat “dish”; see origin at plate 1, -er 2
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:
A nervous server presents a platter of meat to William’s knights.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Disney's coverage also featured a vegetable platter being served and a rotating floor.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
With their debut full-length self-titled album released Friday, the same day as their first Hollywood Bowl appearance supporting Al Green, this moment was not handed to them on a silver platter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
For a big summer bash, arrange this one on a large platter, and let folks help themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Nate takes the platter from her and puts it on the overturned crates we use as a coffee table.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
There are bottomless mimosas and $28 omelets, towers of French toast and Bloody Marys accessorized like seafood platters.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
Pillars shoot up into the sky, with large platters hosting the residents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
Eagerly they dig into platters of durian, carefully arranged from the mildest to the richest.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2026
She had stacks of silver serving platters and mountains of spoons, some of which dated back to my grandparents’ catering business.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 21, 2025
I brought the serving platters and the Kool-Aid pitcher into the kitchen.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
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.
