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

At times this season, defending Towns with smaller players has invited the Knicks into playing slower. —James L. Edwards Iii, The Athletic, 27 Dec. 2024

The show’s turn to militarized warfare is more jarring than most TV and film gunfights, perhaps because of how the games deliberately infantilize players. —Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 27 Dec. 2024

Multiple Squid Game players, including his pregnant ex-girlfriend, went into debt by following his advice. —Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 27 Dec. 2024

Betts spilling his guts to Hart and Thompson was understandable, and the Dodgers must be privately relieved their star player didn’t wait until spring training to unload. —Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 27 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