player

noun

play·​er ˈplā-ər 

: one that plays: such as

a

: a person who plays a game

a baseball player

a chess player

She's one of the team's best players.

b

: a person who plays a musical instrument

a piano player

c

: actor

… what drew these audiences was the emergence of the movie star from the ranks of the wholly anonymous players of a decade earlier.

—David Nasaw

d

: a device that reproduces recorded material (such as video images or music) from a usually specified medium

a CD player

e

: one actively involved especially in a competitive field or process : participant

a key player in politics

f

or less commonly playa US slang : a person and especially a man who has many lovers

Handsome and a well-paid professional, Keith, 35, chose to be a player, juggling a series of relatively brief and sometimes over-lapping intimate relationships with women.

—Michel Marriott

This album has a lot of sexual references. It's almost like Bobby's … a playa.

—Elliott Wilson

Note: The variant playa is more common in transcribed speech.

Synonyms

• instrumentalist
• musician

Examples of player in a Sentence

She's one of the team's best players.

The band's lead guitar player hurt his hand and couldn't play.

Piano players are called pianists.

Recent Examples on the Web

The idea is to cultivate long-term player engagement, including regular content updates and social features to promote community building. —Gary Denham, Forbes, 3 Dec. 2024

The premiere will be on VoD player YLE Areena on New Year’s Day followed by the linear broadcaster YLE1 five days later. —Max Goldbart, Deadline, 2 Dec. 2024

But there were times when Jackson overthrew or threw behind his players and several times the Ravens simply dropped passes, including Nelson Agholor and even Andrews. —Mike Preston, Baltimore Sun, 2 Dec. 2024

Prince slid into them to connect with the producer and bass player about loving her music. —Mesfin Fekadu, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing player

• bit player
• most valuable player
• non-player character
• player piano
• record player
• tape player
• team player

Kids Definition

player

noun

play·​er ˈplā-ər 

1

a

: a person who plays a game

b

: musician

c

: actor

2

: a device for playing recorded material (as music)

an MP3 player