playing card

noun

1. one of the conventional set of 52 cards in four suits, as diamonds, hearts, spades, and clubs, used in playing various games of chance and skill.
2. one of any set or pack of cards used in playing games.

playing card

noun

1. one of a pack of 52 rectangular stiff cards, used for playing a variety of games, each card having one or more symbols of the same kind (diamonds, hearts, clubs, or spades) on the face, but an identical design on the reverse See also suit

Word History and Origins

Origin of playing card¹

First recorded in 1535–45

Example Sentences

The only thing you have to keep you alive is a rulebook, your wits, and…a talking playing card.

From Time

To work in cars, the company will need to produce batteries packed with several dozen layers, effectively moving from a single playing card to a deck.

From MIT Technology Review

The pictures depict oversize playing cards, utterly flat objects.

From Washington Post

Biography has, too, its place in this playing-card cosmography, though it has not many examples.

From Project Gutenberg

It was neither a visiting nor a playing card, but one bearing a photographic portrait of a peculiar nature.

From Project Gutenberg

It was not a letter at all—as it proved—but a soiled and stained playing card, the Knave of Clubs.

From Project Gutenberg

Out of a piece of Bristol-board (an old playing-card will do) cut a figure in the shape of the annexed diagram.

From Project Gutenberg

It enlarges rapidly from a postage-stamp to a playing-card; to a punt and last a pontoon.

From Project Gutenberg