ply
/plaɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.15 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up rope or yarn.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn" or a move made by one of the players.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To bend; to fold; to mould; (figuratively) to adapt, to modify; to change (a person's) mind, to cause (a person) to submit.
Obsolete; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "two-ply toilet paper"
- "It is possible to have a very well load balanced partition but with such a high ply that its slowest piece is slower than a not-so-well balanced partition with less ply."
- "The designer critic's staff would come in with, for example, loads of three-ply cashmere. The students weren't even selecting their own fabrics."
- "To make the hail rod a rope of straw is the first thing necessary; it must be made of ripe wheat straw, soaked and twisted, plaited with three strand and then with four ply, making twelve strand to the rope."
- "The compartment ceiling panels are of plastic material backed with ply or hardboard panels."
- "The Standards describe the quality of timber or ply, moisture content, amount of acceptable sapwood, freedom from decay and insect attack, limitation of checks and splits and treatment of resin staining, and the way plugging may be employed to mask defects in ply faces."
Etymology
From Middle English pleit, plit, plite (“a fold, pleat, wrinkle; braid, strand in a braided cord, ply”), from Anglo-Norman pli, plei, pleit, and Middle French pli, ploy, ply (“a fold, pleat; joint in armour; situation, state”) (modern French pli (“a fold, pleat”)), from plier, ployer (“to bend, fold”), from Latin plicāre (“to bend, fold, roll up”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to fold, plait, weave”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /plaɪ/
- British English: /plaɪ/