Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Plaything |
PlaythingNoun1. An artifact designed to be played with. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "plaything" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Synonym: PlaythingSynonym: toy (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Amusement | Toy, plaything, bauble; doll; (puppet ); teetotum; knickknack; (trifle); magic lantern; (show); peep show, puppet show, raree show, gallanty show; toy shop; "quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods and becks and wreathed smiles". |
Subjection | Adjective: subject, dependent, subordinate; feudal, feudatory; in subjection to, under control; in leading strings, in harness; subjected, enslaved; Verb: constrained; downtrodden; overborne, overwhelmed; under the lash, on the hip, led by the nose, henpecked; the puppet of, the sport of, the plaything of; under one's orders, under one's command, under one's thumb; a slave to; at the mercy of; in the power of, in the hands of, in the clutches of; at the feet of; at one's beck and call; (obedient); liable; parasitical; stipendiary. |
Unimportance | Toy, plaything, popgun, paper pellet, gimcrack, gewgaw, bauble, trinket, bagatelle, Rickshaw, knickknack, whim-wham, trifle, " trifles light as air "; yankee notions. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Plaything |
| English words defined with "plaything": ball ♦ catapult, cockhorse ♦ hobby, hobbyhorse, hula-hoop ♦ jack-in-the-box, jacks, jackstones, jumping jack ♦ kite ♦ pinata, playhouse, pogo stick, popgun ♦ Return ball, rocking horse ♦ sandbox, sandpile, seesaw, slide, sling, slingshot, spinning top, squirt gun, squirter, Statuary marble, stick horse, swing ♦ teddy, teddy bear, teeterboard, teeter-totter, teetotum, top ♦ water gun, water pistol, wendy house, whirligig. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "plaything": SKIP JACKS. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "plaything": Bauble. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | A Soldier's Plaything (1930) The Plaything (1929) Plaything of Power Lucrezia Borgia; Or (1923) The Plaything of Broadway (1921) Love's Plaything (1921) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Plaything. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Friedrich Nietzsche | The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything. |
Thomas Love Peacock | A book that furnishes no quotations is no book -- it is a plaything. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Kings make a plaything of human pride |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Plaything" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Plaything" is used about 41 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 41 | 53,521 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "plaything"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | lodër (drum, game, play, sporting, tiddly-winks, toy). (various references) | |
Arabic | لعبة (cat's paw, game, merry go round, play, poppet, servant, tool, toy, vehicle), ألعوبة (toy), دمية (doll, dolly, dummy, puppet, shot, tinpot, toy). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | играчка (child's play, knack, tool, toy, whim-wham). (various references) | |
Chinese | 玩具 (toy). (various references) | |
Czech | hraèka (affair, child's play, knick knack, picnic, pushover, toy, walkover), hraèièka, hříèka. (various references) | |
Farsi | اسباب بازی (Toy), بازیچه (Sport, Toy). (various references) | |
Finnish | lelu (toy), leikkikalu (toy). (various references) | |
French | jouet. (various references) | |
German | Spielzeug (bauble, playthings, toy, toys). (various references) | |
Greek | παιχνίδι (game, play, playing, toy, trick). (various references) | |
Hebrew | משחק (acting, game, pastime, play, sport), שעשוע (amusement, delight, enjoyment, entertainment, fun, game, pastime, pleasure, sport), צעצוע (knicknack, ornament, toy). (various references) | |
Hungarian | játékszer (bauble, doodad, golliwog, toy). (various references) | |
Italian | ninnolo (knick knack), giocattolo (toy). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 玩弄物 , 手遊び (diversion, gambling, play), 慰み者 , 慰み物 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | が"ろうぶつ, なぐさみもの, てあそび (gambling, play). (various references) | |
Manx | moyrneen (bauble, gee-gaw, gewgaw), gaih (toy), didee (pap, toy), dee (ate). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aythingplay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | joguete (creature, dupe, tool), brinquedo (bauble, toy). (various references) | |
Romanian | jucãrie (bauble, child's play, gewgaw, sport, tool, toy, trifle). (various references) | |
Russian | toy, novelty, игрушка (bauble, dangle-dolly, gaud, toy). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | igračka (toy). (various references) | |
Spanish | juguete (bauble, toy). (various references) | |
Turkish | oyuncak gibi kullanılan kimse, oyuncak (putty, sport, toy), eğlence (amusement, bash, beano, blow out, carnival, conviviality, distraction, diversion, entertainment, festivity, fete, frolic, fun, gag, gaiety, high jinks, jamboree, jollification, jolliness, jollity, merriment, merrymaking, party, pastime, play, racket, recreation, recreational, rejoicing, relaxation, revel, saturnalia, setout, sport). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | іграшка (bauble, gaud, toy). (various references) | |
Welsh | tegan (bauble, toy). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | crepundia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "plaything": playthings. (additional references) | |
| |
"Plaything" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Blythin, Blything. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "plaything" (pronounced plā"thi'ng) |
| 3 | -th i' ng | anything, everything. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-g-h-i-l-n-p-t-y" | |
-2 letters: halting, inaptly, lathing, nightly, nylghai, plating, playing, ptyalin. | |
-3 letters: alight, gainly, haling, hating, hatpin, haying, hyalin, hyping, laying, litany, nighty, painty, paling, paying, plaint, pliant, plight, plinth, plying, tangly, taping, thinly, tingly, typing. | |
-4 letters: algin, align, aping, aptly, gaily, giant, glint, glyph, haply, hying, inapt, inlay, laigh, laith, laity, lapin, lathi, lathy, liang. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-g-h-i-l-n-p-t-y" | |
+1 letter: playthings. | |
+4 letters: hypervigilant, playwrighting. | |
+5 letters: photogenically, playwrightings. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
