playbook
Americannoun
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(in Elizabethan drama) the script of a play, used by the actors as an acting text.
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Football. a notebook containing descriptions of all the plays and strategies used by a team, often accompanied by diagrams, issued to players for them to study and memorize before the season begins.
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Informal. any plan or set of strategies, as for outlining a campaign in business or politics.
noun
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a book containing a range of possible set plays
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a notional range of possible tactics in any sphere of activity
Etymology
Origin of playbook
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.
Lower prices aren’t part of the playbook that many CFOs used to confront inflation several years ago, in the aftermath of the pandemic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
The settlement doesn’t directly apply to YouTube, TikTok, or any other platform, but it does give litigants a blueprint for how to pressure those platforms using a similar playbook.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026
How 10-year-old oral care brand Boka is winning on Amazon with a beauty marketing playbook.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Even at a young age, he made sure to concern himself with the minor nuances of the playbook and the receiver position.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
Principal Cody handed the playbook back to Diego and smiled at me.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
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.
