plaza

American  

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

noun

• plazas
  plural

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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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• plazas
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of plaza

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

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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

See Examples For:

plaza plazas

The crowd was small enough and social enough to squeeze into a group portrait in the plaza in front of the Hermosa Pier.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026

In Aberdeen, the building that used to house BHS - a department store shuttered in 2016 - is being converted into an entrance plaza for the new food and drink market.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

Konca also used the address of a medical plaza in Pomona to register a pet hotel and spa business, according to state and property records.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

It consists of two bulbous pods of uneven size, joined by an aerial bridge that shades a public plaza below.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Climbing onto the television cabinet, which stood beneath the window, Sticky peered out over the plaza below.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

The oldest of these supposedly date back to 500 B.C. and feature plazas, artificial ponds and miles of roads.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

I won’t miss the stops for fast food and comfort breaks in windswept concourses of highway service plazas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

The walkways will be interspersed with plazas, small parks and exercise stations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026

The local government announced on social media that the site was "full" and suggested fans go to other plazas.

From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026

Mami’s mother had been one of fifteen children, and Mami had endless aunts, uncles, and cousins in the barrios that stretched like tentacles from the wide avenues and shady plazas.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

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Related Words

• park
• square

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