Playa

//ˈplaɪə// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely. US

    "Beyond the valley below lay a playa, a vast dried-white lake bed, its ends reaching farther than they could see."

  2. 2
    A dude (an informal term of address or general term to describe a person, typically male). slang
  3. 3
    A player (someone who plays the field, or has prowess in gaining romantic and sexual relationships). slang

    "What Pimp was asking me to do was crazy. Off the fuckin' chain. Insane. He was scheming to stick up T.C. and Miss Lady's pool hall so we could pay off G, but a playa like me was getting ready to go to college and put all that two-bit robbing and stealing shit behind me."

Synonyms

All synonyms
alkali flatalluvial plainbankbasinbeachberm

Example

More examples

"Beyond the valley below lay a playa, a vast dried-white lake bed, its ends reaching farther than they could see."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Spanish playa (“beach”). Doublet of plage.

Etymology 2

From a non-rhotic pronunciation of player

Related phrases

playa lakealkali flatsalt pan

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.