Playing

//ˈpleɪ.ɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An occasion on which something, such as a song or show, is played. gerund

    "[…] the Nielsen figures show that average viewership across all playings fell by only 40 percent and that total viewership of the entire season’s episodes fell by only 20 percent."

  2. 2
    the action of taking part in a game or sport or other recreation wordnet
  3. 3
    the act of playing a musical instrument wordnet
  4. 4
    the performance of a part or role in a drama wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of play form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
actingactingactionaflickerapingbetting

Example

More examples

""I feel like playing cards." "So do I.""

Etymology

From Middle English playing; equivalent to play + -ing.

Related phrases

playing pieceplaying timechildren activityfun activityfun gamehaving funkids together

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