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PlainSpell

plate

/ˈpleɪ̯t/noun, verb

plate is spelled P-L-A-T-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Plate, the name). As a noun, plate means “A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of plate is plates.

How many letters and syllables are in plate?

Letters5: P-L-A-T-E
Syllables1
In writing35 times per million words; the 2,725th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is plate?

Plate appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Plate, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce plate?

  • US /ˈpleɪ̯t/
  • US [ˈpʰl̥eɪ̯t]
  • Australia /ˈplæ̝ɪ̯t/

Plate has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-plate.ogg, En-uk-a_plate.ogg, En-au-plate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with plate?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as plate from its last stressed vowel (/eɪt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: patel, petal, pleat, palet.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of plate

  • plates plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • plating participle, present
  • plated participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does plate mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.

    I filled my plate from the bountiful table.

  2. 2

    Such dishes collectively.

    A valuable collection of silver plate was donated to the museum.

  3. 3

    The contents of such a dish.

    I ate a plate of beans.

  4. 4

    A course at a meal.

    The meat plate was particularly tasty.

  5. 5

    An agenda of tasks, problems, or responsibilities

    With revenues down and transfer payments up, the legislature has a full plate.

  6. 6

    A flat object of uniform thickness.

    The most important and most expensive part of any solar cell is a silicon plate.

  7. 7

    AustraliaVehicle license plates, registration plates.

    He stole a car and changed the plates as soon as he could.

  8. 8

    A taxi permit, especially of a metal disc.

  9. 9

    Precious metal, especially silver.

  10. 10

    obsoleteSilver or gold, in the form of a coin, or less often silver or gold utensils or dishes.

  11. 11

    A roundel of silver or argent.

verb

  1. 1

    To cover the surface material of an object with a thin coat of another material, usually a metal.

    This ring is plated with a thin layer of gold.

  2. 2

    To place the various elements of a meal on the diner's plate prior to serving.

    After preparation, the chef will plate the dish.

  3. 3

    To score a run.

    The single plated the runner from second base.

  4. 4

    To arm or defend with metal plates.

  5. 5

    To beat into thin plates.

  6. 6

    To specify which airline a ticket will be issued on behalf of.

    Tickets are normally plated on an itinerary's first international airline.

  7. 7

    To categorize stamps based on their position on the original sheet, in order to reconstruct an entire sheet.

  8. 8

    To identify the printing plate used, particularly with early British stamps.

adjective

as platé
  1. 1

    Alternative form of platy (“semé (strewn) with plates”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Plate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchassiette, plat (flat dish), plaque (flat metallic object), plaque d'immatriculation (vehicle license plate), plaquer (to cover the surface material of an object with…)
GermanTeller, Platte, Tafel (flat dish), überziehen (to cover the surface material of an object with…), Gang (course at a meal)
Portugueseprato (flat dish), placa (flat metallic object), laminar (to cover the surface material of an object with…), pratada (contents of a plate)
Spanishplato (flat dish), placa, lámina (flat metallic object), matrícula (vehicle license plate), chapar (to cover the surface material of an object with…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does plate come from?

From Middle English plate, from Old French plate, from Medieval Latin plata, from Vulgar Latin *plat(t)us, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat, wide”). Compare Spanish plato. (foot): Cockney rhyming slang, from "plates of meat" for "feet".

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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