player

From Middle English pleyer, playere, from Old English pleġere (“player, athlete, wrestler”), equivalent to play +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpleɪə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -eɪə(ɹ)

player (plural players)

1. One that plays
   1. One who plays any game or sport.
   2. (theater) An actor in a dramatic play.
      • 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It:

        All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players

   3. (music) One who plays on a musical instrument.
   4. (gaming, video games) A gamer; a gamester.
   5. (gambling) A gambler.
   6. (historical) A mechanism that actuates a player piano or other automatic musical instrument.
      • 1915, John McTammany, The Technical History of the Player:

        But up to this time the application of the player mechanism had been confined to reed instruments, the piano manufacturers having successfully resisted the introduction of the player mechanism into the piano; but, in the meantime, the manufacturers of players had grown strong and the manufacturers were beginning to properly interpret the handwriting on the wall

      • 1909, William Braid White, Regulation and Repair of Piano and Player Mechanism, ..., page 179:

        A Technical Treatise on Piano Player Mechanism" contains detailed description of the various types of interior and exterior players, embracing manual, pneumatic, automatic, mechanical and electric

      • 1970, Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume, Player piano: the history of the mechanical piano and how to repair it:

        Electric players used either a four-lobe rotary pump belt-driven by an electric motor or a self-contained electric motor and ...

   7. (electronics) An electronic device that plays audio and/or video media, such as CD player.
   8. (computing) A software application that plays audio and/or video media, such as media player.
2. One who is playful; one without serious aims; an idler; a trifler.
3. A significant participant.

   He thought he could become a player, at least at the state level.

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎:

     Another Bush — George W.’s brother Jeb — is likely to be a big player in the Republican Party’s future.

4. (informal) A person who plays the field rather than having a long-term sexual relationship.

• (one who plays; (game) participant; athlete): laker
• See also Thesaurus:libertine

• baller

• Rapley, parley, pearly, replay

player

1. Alternative form of pleyer

Borrowed from English player.

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈplej.eʁ/

player m (plural players)

1. (electronics) player (electronic device or software application that plays media)
2. (video games) player (a person or artificial intelligence that competes in a video game)

For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:player.

• (electronic device): tocador, leitor
• (video game player): jogador