Synonyms of playing

playing

verb

present participle of play

1

as in recreating

to engage in activity for amusement

told her son that he needed some time to run and play in the yard after his hard work

Synonyms & Similar Words

• recreating
• toying
• frolicking
• entertaining
• sporting
• amusing
• rollicking
• relaxing
• joking
• resting
• romping
• cavorting
• disporting
• dabbling
• hanging
• delighting
• skylarking
• teasing
• pleasing
• dallying
• frisking
• gamboling
• diverting
• idling
• loafing
• trifling
• dawdling
• fiddling (around)
• puttering (around)
• screwing around
• jesting
• lounging (around or about)
• messing around
• hanging about
• slacking (off)
• goldbricking
• bumming (around)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• working
• struggling
• striving
• laboring
• sweating
• toiling
• straining
• plodding
• plugging (away)
• slaving
• drudging

2

as in performing

to present a portrayal or performance of

played Hamlet in the campus production of the classic

Synonyms & Similar Words

• performing
• portraying
• doing
• interpreting
• representing
• depicting
• acting
• impersonating
• enacting
• rendering
• dramatizing
• imitating
• acting out
• mimicking
• masquerading
• role-playing
• taking on
• pantomiming
• clowning
• aping
• playacting
• posing (as)
• overplaying
• miming
• underplaying
• hamming
• coacting
• overacting
• starring (in)
• costarring

3

as in mocking

to pretend to be (what one is not) in appearance or behavior

stop playing the innocent, because I know that you were behind that prank

Synonyms & Similar Words

• mocking
• imitating
• portraying
• acting
• impersonating
• posing (as)
• masquerading (as)
• personating
• mimicking
• copying
• miming
• parodying
• monkeying
• performing
• aping
• travestying

4

as in lounging

to spend time in aimless activity

just played around while we waited for the bus to arrive

Synonyms & Similar Words

• lounging
• idling
• loafing
• doodling
• tinkering
• fiddling (around)
• fribbling
• puttering (around)
• fooling around
• pottering (around)
• trifling
• goofing (around)
• hanging about
• messing around
• monkeying (around)
• kicking around
• dawdling
• hanging (around or out)
• lolling
• horsing around
• dallying
• clowning (around)
• dillydallying
• diddling (with)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• setting (to)
• settling (down)
• buckling (down)
• knuckling down

5

as in managing

to deal with (something) usually skillfully or efficiently

this is how we're going to play the situation

Synonyms & Similar Words

• managing
• manipulating
• addressing
• handling
• taking
• treating
• negotiating
• swinging
• maneuvering
• hacking
• fielding
• coping (with)
• grappling (with)
• contending (with)
• pulling
• coming to grips with
• controlling
• jockeying
• carrying out
• having a grip on
• engineering
• regulating
• guiding
• directing
• carrying off
• getting off
• steering
• running
• finessing
• commanding
• responding (to)
• bringing off
• reacting (to)
• micromanaging

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• fumbling
• bungling
• mishandling
• botching
• messing (up)
• muffing
• goofing (up)
• scamping
• lousing up
• foozling

6

as in putting

to risk (something) on the outcome of an uncertain event

figuring that she had little to lose, she played her last few bucks on the state lottery

Synonyms & Similar Words

• putting
• betting
• wagering
• gambling
• laying
• offering
• staking
• going
• bidding
• venturing
• speculating
• jeopardizing
• adventuring
• endangering
• chancing
• hazarding
• imperiling

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of playing

Bailey, for comparison, has a Fielding Run Value of +4 despite playing significantly more innings. — Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 12 Aug. 2026

Then again for a referee assessor on March 14, 2012, while South Korea was playing Qatar in another Olympic qualifier. — Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 12 Aug. 2026

Slapping and/or being slapped was one of Oliver’s handful of requests for his soap opera appearance, along with playing a character with a ridiculous name, and wearing an equally ridiculous wig. — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 11 Aug. 2026

Hopkins kept playing, and even wrote little ditties on staff paper. — Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2026

Users appear to be fed up with feeling like the burden of that distinction should come from them when AI companies are playing such a vital role in pumping out low quality work en masse. — Beatrice Nolan, Fortune, 11 Aug. 2026

Davis shot to fame in The Office, playing the receptionist at paper merchant Wernham Hogg. — Jake Kanter, Deadline, 11 Aug. 2026

Carys made her professional stage debut in June, playing Nina in Anton Chekhov’s tragicomedy The Seagull in Brooklyn. — Adam England, PEOPLE, 4 Aug. 2026

Alice now began playing and recording her own compositions with a handful of open-minded players and eventually racked up twelve nonpareil albums. — Ian Penman, Harpers Magazine, 4 Aug. 2026