dais

noun

da·​is ˈdā-əs 

nonstandard

ˈdī- 

: a raised platform (as in a hall or large room)

Mounting the dais which had been set up for his use, he swirled the sinister cloak about him and sat down in the Abbot's chair.

—Brian Jacques

Synonyms of dais

• podium

Examples of dais in a Sentence

the speaker took his place at the front of the dais

Recent Examples on the Web

Commissioner Stephen Cushman asked from the dais. —Blake Nelson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Nov. 2025

In May, Ortiz and a few of his colleagues on the dais introduced the concept of a smoke shop ban following the release of the 2025 Latino Health Assessment report, which found that Latinos faced more dire health outcomes than their counterparts. —Devan Patel, Mercury News, 5 Nov. 2025

While Aurora City Council races are nominally nonpartisan, there’s no escaping the politics of the day as hot-button issues like crime, immigration and police conduct insert themselves, often loudly, into discussions on the dais — and among those sitting in the council chamber audience. —John Aguilar, Denver Post, 25 Oct. 2025

Bass, from the dais, said he was falsely accused and requested community members give him a chance for his case to play out in court. —Ishani Desai, Sacbee.com, 22 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English deis, des "high table, elevated platform occupied by a court or council," borrowed from Anglo-French deis, dais (continental Old French deis "table of honor set up on a platform"), going back to Medieval Latin discus "raised table, platform," going back to Latin, "discus, kind of plate, gong," borrowed from Greek dískos "discus," in Late Greek also "dish, round mirror, the sun's disk, gong" — more at discus

Note: See note at dish entry 1. The predominant form in Middle French is dois, which should have resulted in Modern French [dwa]; the reason for the outcome dais [dɛ], with the presumed shift [dwɛ] to [dɛ], is in this, as in a number of parallel cases, unclear. As pointed out by the Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, the English word was, excepting Scots, out of use by 1600; the current word is an antiquarian revival, with the spelling presumably copying modern French.

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for dais

• ablaze
• airways
• allays
• always
• amaze
• anglaise
• appraise
• archways
• arrays
• ashtrays
• assays
• ballets

Kids Definition

dais

noun

da·​is ˈdā-əs 

: a raised platform (as in a large room)