playa

1 of 3

noun (1)

pla·​ya ˈplī-ə 

: the flat-floored bottom of an undrained desert basin that becomes at times a shallow lake

playa

2 of 3

noun (2)

variant spelling of player sense f

player

3 of 3

noun (3)

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 or service that reproduces recorded material (such as video images or music)

You can listen to the full episode using the media player above (or wherever you listen to podcasts).

—Tan Vinh

—often used with a specified medium

a digital media player

e

: one actively involved especially in a competitive field or process : participant

a key player in politics

f

or less commonly playa

ˈplā-ə 

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 of playa

Noun (3)

• instrumentalist
• musician
• artist

Examples of playa in a Sentence

Noun (3)

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

Noun

The dust doesn’t come only from the Salton Sea playa. —Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2026

Spring and fall offer bearable temps—prime time for gravel biking, off-roading, land sailing, hot-spring soaking, or astrophotography on the playa’s flat, hard surface. —Ted Alvarez, Outside, 9 Mar. 2026

Noun

Then to add insult to injury, Harrison — one of the players acquired in last summer’s Rafael Devers trade — has broken out as a potential Cy Young Award contender in Milwaukee. —Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald, 30 May 2026

Then came party number two on Sunday, when Arsenal’s players finally got their hands on the trophy and lifted it above their heads in the last game of the league season – cue more scenes of celebration across the English capital and beyond. —Ben Church, CNN Money, 30 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Spanish, literally, beach, from Late Latin plagia — more at plage

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1854, in the meaning defined above

Noun (3)

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing playa

• bit player
• most valuable player
• non-player character
• player piano
• record player
• tape player
• team player

Rhymes for playa

• gaia
• maia
• maya
• via
• hezekiah
• jeremiah
• nehemiah
• obadiah
• zechariah
• messiah
• nyaya
• papaya