plate

pronunciation

How to pronounce plate in British English: UK [pleɪt] word uk audio image

How to pronounce plate in American English: US [pleɪt] word us audio image

Noun:

a sheet of metal or wood or glass or plastic
(baseball) base consisting of a rubber slab where the batter stands; it must be touched by a base runner in order to score
a full-page illustration (usually on slick paper)
dish on which food is served or from which food is eaten
the quantity contained in a plate
a rigid layer of the Earth's crust that is believed to drift slowly
the thin under portion of the forequarter
a main course served on a plate
any flat platelike body structure or part
the positively charged electrode in a vacuum tube
a flat sheet of metal or glass on which a photographic image can be recorded
structural member consisting of a horizontal beam that provides bearing and anchorage
a shallow receptacle for collection in church
a metal sheathing of uniform thickness (such as the shield attached to an artillery piece to protect the gunners)
a dental appliance that artificially replaces missing teeth
the position on a baseball team of the player who is stationed behind home plate and who catches the balls that the pitcher throws
Verb:

coat with a layer of metal

Word Origin

plate: plate: [13] Etymologically, a plate is something ‘flat’. It comes from Vulgar Latin *plattus ‘flat’, which may go back to Greek platús ‘broad’ (source of English place, plane the tree, and platypus). It reached English via two separate Old French words, which have since coalesced: first plate, which gives the sense ‘flat sheet’, as in silver plate and plate glass; and then, in the 15th century, plat, ‘dish for food’.Related forms in English include plateau [18], platform [16] (etymologically a ‘flat form’), platinum [19], platitude [19] (a ‘flat’ or dull remark), and platter [14].=> flat, place, plane, plateau, platform, platinum, platitude, platter, platypus

plate (n.): mid-13c., "flat sheet of gold or silver," also "flat, round coin," from Old French plate "thin piece of metal" (late 12c.), from Medieval Latin plata "plate, piece of metal," perhaps via Vulgar Latin *plattus, formed on model of Greek platys "flat, broad" (see plaice (n.)). The cognate in Spanish (plata) and Portuguese (prata) has become the usual word for "silver," superseding argento via shortening of *plata d'argento "plate of silver, coin." Meaning "table utensils" (originally of silver or gold only) is from Middle English. Meaning "shallow dish for food," now usually of china or earthenware, originally of metal or wood, is from mid-15c. Baseball sense is from 1857. Geological sense is first attested 1904; plate tectonics first recorded 1969. Plate-glass first recorded 1727.