playmaker

[pley-mey-ker]

See more synonyms for playmaker on Thesaurus.com

noun Sports.

an offensive player, as in basketball or ice hockey, who executes plays designed to put one or more teammates in a position to score.
Archaic. a playwright; dramatist.

Origin of playmaker

First recorded in 1520–30; play + maker

Related formsplay·mak·ing, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for playmaker

point, playmaker, explorer, guide, leader, player, scout, pathfinder, trailblazer

Examples from the Web for playmaker

Contemporary Examples of playmaker

They named Howe the smartest player, best passer and playmaker and best puck carrier.
Gordie Howe Hockey’s Greatest War Horse
W.C. Heinz
May 31, 2014
Watch out for playmaker Asamoah Gyan—everything Ghana does seems to go through him.
World Cup Primer
Joshua Robinson
June 12, 2010

Historical Examples of playmaker

I am no playmaker, and, for pledging your healths, I love none of the four you drank to so well.
A Select Collection of Old English Plays (11 of 15)
W. Carew Hazlitt
It was the work of a playmaker rather than a poet, and the verse had none of the elevation of Godfreys or Rogerss.
A History of American Literature
Percy H. Boynton
It is to require the story-teller and the playmaker to prove a thesis that common sense must reject.
Materials and Methods of Fiction
Clayton Hamilton

British Dictionary definitions for playmaker

playmaker

noun

sport a player whose role is to create scoring opportunities for his or her team-mates

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012