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

The Knicks, who are on the verge of sending the Celtics home for the summer, already have all of their key rotation players under contract next year. —Bryan Toporek, Forbes.com, 14 May 2025

But neither player packs enough star power at the position to make sense as a long-term starting option. —Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 14 May 2025

In 1991, the Hall of Fame voted to block all of MLB’s permanently ineligible players from its membership. —Matt Moret, New York Times, 14 May 2025

This course is also set up for the big, booming players off the tee to do well, and nobody fits that bill better than McIlroy and DeChambeau. —Troy Finnegan‎, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 May 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

Rhymes for player

• gayer
• grayer
• greyer
• layer
• mayor
• nayar
• payer
• payor
• peyer
• preyer
• sayer
• slayer

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