plaza

American  

[plah-zuh, plaz-uh] / ˈplɑ zə, ˈplæz ə /

noun

1. a public square or open space in a city or town.

2. shopping plaza.

3. an area along an expressway where public facilities, as service stations and restrooms, are available.

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plaza British  

/ ˈplaθa, ˈplɑːzə /

noun

1. an open space or square, esp in Spain or a Spanish-speaking country

2. 1. a modern complex of shops, buildings, and parking areas

   2. ( capital when part of a name )

      Rockefeller Plaza

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Etymology

Origin of plaza

First recorded in 1675–85; from Spanish, from Latin platea “street,” from Greek plateîa “broad street”; place

Explanation

A plaza is an urban park or square, or another public space where people can walk, sit, and congregate. You might, for example, tell your friend to meet you in the plaza downtown with the big horse statue. There are plazas that are mainly open spaces for pedestrians, sometimes including statues, fountains, and benches, like Washington DC's Freedom Plaza or Union Square in New York. Other plazas are more commercial, offering room to stroll and sit but also stores and restaurants. In Spanish, plaza simply means "place," and the earliest plazas were built in Spanish colonies in South America and the East Indies.

Example Sentences

They sang gospel, religious, and protest songs from the civil rights movement together, their voices carrying across the plaza.

From Salon • Apr. 6, 2026

“I’m crying,” said Nidia Perez, a grandmother and school janitor who caught the game in a plaza in Caracas.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

In the central plaza you’ll see swaths of handwoven fabric draped like canopies over the cobbled streets — splashes of pink, blue, yellow and green offering welcome shade from the afternoon heat.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 6, 2026

The justices don’t care what you’re doing out there on the plaza; they are just brains in a vat.

From Slate • Mar. 4, 2026

It burst and there was a gray ball of smoke high up above the Theatre Gayarre, across on the other side of the plaza.

From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

Related Words

• park
• square