PLAYS (ON OR UPON) Synonyms: 24 Similar Words

plays (on or upon)

verb

present tense third-person singular of play (on or upon)

as in uses

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

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for plays (on or upon)

Verb

The Flock fallout is expanding with Hopkinton, Massachusetts, joining the growing number of Commonwealth communities turning off the technology that uses cameras to scan license plates and record details like a car's make, model and color.

— Tammy Mutasa, CBS News, 21 Aug. 2026
Buffalo Grove, which also uses joint purchasing through Lake County, plans to purchase salt from other sources to cover its need.

— Steve Zalusky, Chicago Tribune, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of uses

Verb

Before more cameras appear, your community deserves clear answers about who can search the records, how long the data stays available and what happens when someone abuses access.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 30 July 2026
New York City’s child welfare agency routinely abuses its emergency power to take children from their parents without a court order, creating lifelong consequences for families, a new class-action lawsuit seeking to end the practice alleged Thursday.

— Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News, 28 May 2026

Definition of abuses

Verb

Deed theft often exploits grief, financial distress, inheritance disputes and the limited resources of older homeowners.

— Landon Dais, New York Daily News, 15 Aug. 2026
Russian ballistic attacks have risen fast in recent weeks, hitting the capital Kyiv particularly hard, as Moscow exploits Ukraine’s near-zero stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles.

— Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of exploits

Verb

The result is a documentary that implicitly honors these incredible doctors, but more acutely leverages their plight to address the numbing exasperation that such an atrocity is designed to instill among otherwise good people.

— David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 Aug. 2026
The innovative approach leverages the cell's natural immune surveillance system, where small fragments of internal proteins are displayed on the cell surface.

— William A. Haseltine, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of leverages

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.

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plays hooky

plays (on or upon)

plays out

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“Plays (on or upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plays%20%28on%20or%20upon%29. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of plays (on or upon)

verb

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