1
a
: a public square in a city or town
b
: an open area usually located near urban buildings and often featuring walkways, trees and shrubs, places to sit, and sometimes shops
2
: a place on a thoroughfare (such as a turnpike) at which all traffic must temporarily stop (as to pay tolls)
3
: an area adjacent to an expressway which has service facilities (such as a restaurant, gas station, and restrooms)
4
Examples of plaza in a Sentence
They put his statue in the town's plaza.
Recent Examples on the Web
Just northeast of the plaza is a hilltop park with a cross that gets some of the best sunset views in town.
—
Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 29 Mar. 2024
During winter months, most of the adjacent Empire State Plaza is also walled off with temporary barricades to keep people from slipping and getting hurt on the icy plaza — even though there has hardly been any snow or ice this winter.
—Jay Root, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2024
Serra’s rude division of an open plaza in Manhattan with an enormous, hostile-looking steel arc, 120 feet long and twice the height of most humans, was one of the last moments of meaningful tension between public opinion and an uncompromising artistic avant-garde.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2024
The women, known as Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo, have circled the same Buenos Aires plaza in protest every Thursday for 47 years.
—Isabel Debre, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Mar. 2024
Chantal Da Silva Later in the evening, hundreds of people filled the plaza steps outside the Damascus Gate — something Palestinians have not been able to do throughout much of the war.
—NBC News, 15 Mar. 2024
Despite that criticism– and despite making a big show of painting a Black Lives Matter mural on the ground and renaming a plaza amid the George Floyd protests– Washington D.C.’s city council passed a crime bill that would give the police unfettered power in the city.
—Olayemi Olurin, Essence, 11 Mar. 2024
Closing off the town plaza, men performed daredevil tricks with bulls provided by local wealthy cattlemen.
—Toby Muse, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2024
Or, the plaza might have represented a broader form of social cohesion than had been previously seen before.
—Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024
Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 29 Mar. 2024
During winter months, most of the adjacent Empire State Plaza is also walled off with temporary barricades to keep people from slipping and getting hurt on the icy plaza — even though there has hardly been any snow or ice this winter.
—Jay Root, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2024
Serra’s rude division of an open plaza in Manhattan with an enormous, hostile-looking steel arc, 120 feet long and twice the height of most humans, was one of the last moments of meaningful tension between public opinion and an uncompromising artistic avant-garde.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2024
The women, known as Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo, have circled the same Buenos Aires plaza in protest every Thursday for 47 years.
—Isabel Debre, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Mar. 2024
Chantal Da Silva Later in the evening, hundreds of people filled the plaza steps outside the Damascus Gate — something Palestinians have not been able to do throughout much of the war.
—NBC News, 15 Mar. 2024
Despite that criticism– and despite making a big show of painting a Black Lives Matter mural on the ground and renaming a plaza amid the George Floyd protests– Washington D.C.’s city council passed a crime bill that would give the police unfettered power in the city.
—Olayemi Olurin, Essence, 11 Mar. 2024
Closing off the town plaza, men performed daredevil tricks with bulls provided by local wealthy cattlemen.
—Toby Muse, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2024
Or, the plaza might have represented a broader form of social cohesion than had been previously seen before.
—Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'plaza.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near plaza
Cite this Entry
“Plaza.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plaza. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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