plead
Americanverb (used without object)
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pleads,
present (3rd person singular)
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pleaded,
past participle, past
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pled,
past participle, past
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pleading
present participle
-
to appeal or entreat earnestly.
to plead for time.
- Synonyms:
- supplicate, beg
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to use arguments or persuasions, as with a person, for or against something.
She pleaded with him not to take the job.
- Synonyms:
- reason
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to afford an argument or appeal.
His youth pleads for him.
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Law.
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to make any allegation or plea in an action at law.
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to put forward an answer on the part of a defendant to a legal declaration or charge.
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to address a court as an advocate.
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Obsolete. to prosecute a suit or action at law.
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verb (used with object)
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pleads,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pleaded,
past participle, past
-
pled,
past participle, past
-
pleading
present participle
-
to allege or urge in defense, justification, or excuse.
to plead ignorance.
- Synonyms:
- claim
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Law.
-
to maintain (a cause) by argument before a court.
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to allege or set forth (something) formally in an action at law.
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to allege or cite in legal defense.
to plead a statute of limitations.
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verb
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to appeal earnestly or humbly (to)
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(tr; may take a clause as object) to give as an excuse; offer in justification or extenuation
to plead ignorance
he pleaded that he was insane
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to provide an argument or appeal (for)
her beauty pleads for her
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law to declare oneself to be (guilty or not guilty) in answer to the charge
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law to advocate (a case) in a court of law
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(intr) law
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to file pleadings
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to address a court as an advocate
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Usage
What does plead mean? Plead means to beg or passionately try to persuade someone to do something. It’s similar to the word beg, which often means to request again and again. Plead can mean the same thing, but it’s especially used to imply that the request is passionate and that the person doing the pleading is desperate. It’s especially used in serious situations. A person might plead with their friend to get help with an addiction. You might plead with your teacher for more time to complete a project. Plead is used in a more specific way in a legal context, in which it means to declare one’s status in response to charges, especially to plead guilty or not guilty, as in How does the defendant plead? and My client pleads not guilty. It can also mean to argue something in court. The expression plead one’s case uses this sense of the word. Less commonly, plead can mean to offer as an excuse for or defense of one’s actions. When used this way, it’s typically followed by the specific excuse, as in, Don’t plead ignorance—you knew what you were doing. Plead has two past tense forms: pleaded and pled. The noun form of plead is plea. Example: When I was a kid, I was afraid of the dentist and used to plead with my mom not to make me go.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pleadsimple
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pleadssimple
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have pleadedperfect
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have pledperfect
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has pleadedperfect
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has pledperfect
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am pleadingprogressive
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are pleadingprogressive
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is pleadingprogressive
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have been pleadingperfect progressive
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has been pleadingperfect progressive
Past
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pleadedsimple
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pledsimple
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had pleadedperfect
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had pledperfect
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was pleadingprogressive
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were pleadingprogressive
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had been pleadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of plead
First recordd in 1200–50; Middle English plaiden, from< Old French plaid(i)er “to go to law, plead,” from early Medieval Latin placitāre “to litigate,” derivative of Latin placitum “opinion, agreed condition.” See plea
Explanation
To plead with someone is to try to convince them to see it your way. Your kids may plead with you to let them go on the super-huge outrageous roller coaster built in 1968, but you know better. The term plead comes from the word plea, which is from the legal system, where lawyers make a plea to the court and argue a case for their client. To plead is to ask for something from someone, often on the verge of begging. You may plead with the phone company to give an appointment time that spans only three hours, but, regardless of your pleading, they will make you wait eight hours for the technician to finally show.
Vocabulary lists containing plead
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Instead of "Said": Words for Asking and Offering
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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.
See Examples For:
At a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Friday, Mangione's lawyers announced that he intended to plead guilty to the two federal charges against him.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
After all, El-Sayed recently had to plead with his backers not to take personal shots at Stevens and her accent online.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
His decision to plead the Fifth, according to people familiar with his legal strategy, was designed in part to avoid what his legal team believed was a perjury trap.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
But they did not plead the Fifth, opting instead to refuse to appear.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
If only I could plead to a packed auditorium, then, just maybe...
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
"Jolene, I'm begging of you, please don't take my man," she pleads.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
In Psalm 73, Asaph pleads with God, wondering why good men suffer while the wicked prosper.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
It’s just days before the wedding, and as the caterer gently pleads, a “yes” has to be absolutely final this time around.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2026
In it, Savannah Guthrie pleads for the public to help locate her missing mother.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026
“Tell me a story about when you were little,” Ruby pleads.
From "The One and Only Ivan" by Katherine Applegate
Richards, 35, had originally pleaded not guilty but changed his plea on all counts on the second day of the trial at Swansea Crown Court.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
York, 45, pleaded no contest to charges of disorderly conduct and possessing criminal tools, Columbiana County Municipal Court records show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Having initially been left out by Paul Tisdale at Exeter amid interest from Derby in 2017, he pleaded with the manager to play and came off the bench to score in a win against Wycombe.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
He and William pleaded with him not to marry his long-term mistress and now queen, Camilla, Harry revealed.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
“Let me pass,” she pleaded, shouldering her way through.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
In August 2024 he rejected a motion to dismiss a private suit against Harvard, writing, “the facts as pled show that Harvard failed its Jewish students.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
In more recent cases, State Department intelligence analyst Walter Kendall Myers and former US ambassador to Bolivia Victor Manuel Rocha pled guilty in separate cases to spying for the communist country.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
Lord Harrower said if Patrick had pled not guilty and the case had gone to trial then the sentence would have been 12 years.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
The penalty comes just three days after his son, Tom Jr, pled guilty to failing to provide adequate food and rest to five Ghanaian fishermen in 2017.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026
I pled with her—knowing not why I pled—“But I am free. I play my violin.”
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
The 46-year-old, who is also the owner of the San Francisco 49ers, was convicted of disorderly conduct and possessing criminal tools after pleading no contest to two charges.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
Cohen spent more than a year behind bars after pleading guilty in 2018 to tax and campaign-finance crimes and lying to Congress about Trump’s plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow, among other federal charges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
But his promotion was accelerated when Charlie was sent to prison in Alabama in 2005 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
LA Jazz Festival was a major project for Ludlow, a former Los Angeles City Council member turned music promoter and community activist after pleading guilty to misappropriating funds in 2006.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
I look at Aunt J, silently pleading with her to tell me that I didn’t do what I think I did.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
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.
