Plea
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An appeal, petition, urgent prayer or entreaty.
"Even if only one person answers my plea for someone to correspond with it will be a blessing."
- 2 an answer indicating why a suit should be dismissed wordnet
- 3 An excuse; an apology.
"Necessity, the tyrant’s plea."
- 4 (law) a defendant's answer by a factual matter (as distinguished from a demurrer) wordnet
- 5 That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification.
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 a humble request for help from someone in authority wordnet
- 7 That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause.
- 8 An allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer.
- 9 The defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand.
- 10 A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas.
"they or any three of them shall be a Court and have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed."
- 1 To plead; to argue. England, Scotland, regional
"With my riches, my unhappiness was increased tenfold; and here, with another great acquisition of property, for which I had pleaed, and which I had gained in a dream, my miseries and difficulties were increasing."
Example
More examples"Please don't do translations if you're crap at it. This is a plea from the English translation clients."
Etymology
From Middle English ple, from Old French plait, plaid, from Medieval Latin placitum (“a decree, sentence, suit, plea, etc., Latin an opinion, determination, prescription, order; literally, that which is pleasing, pleasure”), neuter of placitus, past participle of placere (“to please”). Cognate with Spanish pleito (“lawsuit, suit”). Doublet of placit. See also please, pleasure.
Related phrases
More for "plea"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.