Thesaurus results for PLAY ON

play (on or upon)

verb

Definition of play (on or upon)

as in to use

to take unfair advantage of the candidate played on the voters' prejudices

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for play (on or upon)

Verb

When the Wright brothers first flew, the doubt was never about whether the machine worked, but whether flight would ever be something ordinary people used without a second thought.

— Charlotte Kiang, Forbes.com, 9 July 2026
In the Tahoe Basin, the Caldor fire restoration plan outlines roughly 3,600 acres where the Forest Service could use ground crews to apply herbicide directly to shrubs — no aerial spraying.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 9 July 2026

Definition of use

Verb

Parties have exploited lulls in fighting to buy time, rebuild capabilities and consolidate political or territorial gains ahead of the next round of conflict.

— Anthony Wanis-St John, The Conversation, 10 July 2026
Instead of performing occasional security audits, organisations will increasingly use AI to test their systems continuously, helping identify vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.

— Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 10 July 2026

Definition of exploit

Verb

OpenAI says its threat reports draw on its view of how actors try to abuse AI models, often in combination with other platforms and tools.

— Ron Schmelzer, Forbes.com, 10 July 2026
Four people represented by the ACLU of Tennessee filed a lawsuit in May accusing the task force of abusing the law to block them from documenting officers’ actions, sometimes ordering them to stay more than 100 feet away from arrest scenes.

— Andy Rose, CNN Money, 10 July 2026

Definition of abuse

Verb

Brazil is building, and its stars looking for larger markets, leveraging its film industry’s sudden explosion onto the international film scene.

— John Hopewell, Variety, 7 July 2026
While bad actors are increasingly deploying AI to scale and automate their operations, organizations are also leveraging the technology to improve threat detection and accelerate response times.

— Melissa Hancock, Fortune, 7 July 2026

Definition of leverage

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

play-offs

play (on or upon)

play out

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“Play (on or upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/play%20%28on%20or%20upon%29. Accessed 12 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of play (on or upon)

verb

Example Sentences

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