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

New findings from the crypto-tracing firm Elliptic show how one of the biggest players in that sphere, Huione Guarantee, has likely enabled $24 billion in gray market transactions—with the volume of activity on the platform rocketing up 51 percent since initial investigations last summer. —Matt Burgess, WIRED, 14 Jan. 2025

With a November birthday, Hagens is also a bit further along the development curve than some of his rivals as one of the older players in his draft class. —Carol Schram, Forbes, 14 Jan. 2025

While the South Korean titan is known as a major player in consumer electronics, which does form a big part of its business, the bulk of its profit comes from semiconductors, and in particular the sale of memory. —Arjun Kharpal, CNBC, 14 Jan. 2025

Deion Sanders spent five seasons with the Cowboys as a player, making four Pro Bowls and earning three All-Pro First Team honors. —John Mac Ghlionn, Newsweek, 14 Jan. 2025

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