platform

English

platform stage (noun sense 1)
work platform (noun sense 2)
railroad platforms (noun sense 6) on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)
rock platform (noun sense 12)

Etymology

From Middle French plateforme (“a flat form”), from plate (“flat”) (from Old French plat, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat”)) + forme (“form”) (from Latin fōrma (“shape; figure; form”)); compare flatscape.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈplætfɔːm/, /ˈplɑtfɔːm/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈplætfɔɹm/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ætfɔː(ɹ)m
  • Hyphenation: plat‧form

Noun

platform (plural platforms)

  2. A raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made.
    Synonyms: dais, (speeches) podium
    • 1915, Russell H. Conwell, Robert Shackleton, chapter IV, in Acres of Diamonds‎[1], His Life and Achievements:
      Always, whether in the pulpit or on the platform, as in private conversation, there is an absolute simplicity about the man and his words; a simplicity, an earnestness, a complete honesty.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      “ […]  They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
  4. A raised floor for any purpose, e.g. for workmen during construction, or formerly for military cannon.
    Hyponyms: oil platform, work platform
  5. (figurative) A place or an opportunity to express one's opinion.
    Synonym: tribune
    This new talk show will give a platform to everyday men and women.
    • 2021 September 28, Scott Cacciola, “LeBron James said he was vaccinated, after previously evading the question.”, in The New York Times‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 February 2026:
      [LeBron] James did not say which vaccine he had taken or the number of doses he had received. He also said that he would not use his platform to publicly encourage others to be vaccinated.
  6. (figurative) Something that allows an enterprise to advance.
    Synonyms: foundation, stage
    • 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport‎[3], archived from the original on 12 January 2016:
      Hidgson may actually feel England could have scored even more but this was the perfect first step on the road to Rio in 2014 and the ideal platform for the second qualifier against Ukraine at Wembley on Tuesday.
  7. (politics, figurative) A political stance on a broad set of issues, which are called planks.
    • 1652, Gerrard Winstanley, chapter 1, in The Law of Freedom in a Platform:
      Now if the earth could be enjoyed in such a manner as every one might have provision, as it may by this platform I have offered, then will the peace of the commonwealth be preserved, and men need not act so hypocritically as the clergy do, and others likewise, to get a living.
    • 1936, Communist Election Platform 1936, New York City: Workers Library Publishers, page 6:
      The Communist Party and its candidates stand on the following platform, which expresses the immediate interests of the majority of the population of our country.
    • 1972, Mike Gravel, Citizen Power: A People's Platform, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page xii:
      Surely there is nothing strange or new or threatening about such a platform. It will distress only those who have the essentially un-American view that change itself is frightening and should be avoided at all costs.
  9. (transport) A raised structure or other area alongside rails or a driveway alongside which vehicles stop to take in and discharge passengers.
    Hyponym: island platform
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. […] As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.
    • 1997, Bob Dylan, “Tryin' to Get to Heaven”, in Time Out of Mind:
      People on the platforms / Waiting for the trains / I can hear their hearts a-beatin’ / Like pendulums swinging on chains
    • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist‎[4], volume 407, number 8838, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 February 2018, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
      A “moving platform” scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. […] Stopping high-speed trains wastes energy and time, so why not simply slow them down enough for a moving platform to pull alongside?
  11. (transport) A specific stopping place on one of multiple tracks at a station, numbered or otherwise named.
    Synonym: track
  13. (footwear, in the plural) Ellipsis of platform shoe (“a kind of high shoe with an extra layer between the inner and outer soles”).
    • 1973 August 25, Jim Fournier, “Lo♡in' Mu𝄚ic”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 10, page 2:
      Now open the album cover! How fabulous! The four of them [the Pointer Sisters] in platforms of death, tacky gowns, and "reflections of."
    • 2001 [1999], Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, New York: Penguin, →ISBN, page 167:
      Walk to Shazzer's from polling station was hideous walk of shame. Also cannot wear platforms now as feet too crippled so will look short.
  14. (Internet) A software system used to provide online services to clients, such as social media, e-commerce, or cloud computing.
    Hyponyms: container platform, microservices platform
    • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist‎[5], volume 407, number 8838, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 January 2018, page 71:
      Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.
    • 2014, Astra Taylor, “Preface”, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:
      In fact, wealth and power are shifting to those who control the platforms on which all of us create, consume, and connect.
    • 2021 September 15, Reeves Wiedeman, “Why Does Every Company Now Want to Be a Platform?”, in The New York Times Book Review‎[6], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 December 2024:
      The promise of the platform business model is its magical self-reinforcement: Once the platform is in place, money is supposed to flow through the system without much extra effort at all.
  16. (computing) A particular operating system or environment such as a database or other specific software; a particular type of computer or microprocessor, used for running other software.
    That program runs on the X Window System platform.
    • 1996 September 23, “Intel attacks Mac publishing niche”, in Computerworld, volume 30, number 39, →ISSN, page 56:
      “We used to produce our publication on the Mac, but the Wintel platform is cheaper and there are just as many applications available. So it just seemed to make sense to give up the religious war and get on with the business of doing our job,” said the information systems manager at a New York-based magazine, who asked not to be named.
  17. (automotive) Ellipsis of car platform (“a set of components shared by several vehicle models”).
    • 2017, Vinod K. Jain, Global Strategy: Competing in the Connected Economy, Routledge, →ISBN, page 131:
      A car platform consists of the underbody, suspension, and axles, plus components such as the steering mechanism, engine, and powertrain. Using such a platform, a car company can design several distinct car models to suit different customer groups […]
  19. (geology) A flat expanse of rock, often the result of wave erosion.
    • 2019, Reed Wicander, James S. Monroe, Geology: Earth in Perspective, Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 319:
      Wave erosion causes a sea cliff to migrate landward, leaving a gently sloping surface, called a wave-cut platform. A wave-built platform originates by deposition at the seaward margin of the wave-cut platform.
  20. (nautical) A light deck, usually placed in a section of the hold or over the floor of the magazine.
  21. (obsolete) A plan; a sketch; a model; a pattern.
  22. (Myanmar) A sidewalk.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

platform (third-person singular simple present platforms, present participle platforming, simple past and past participle platformed)

  1. (transitive) To furnish with or shape into a platform
    • 1885, Frances Elliot, The Diary of an Idle Woman in Sicily‎[7], page 192:
      […] upon a smiling knoll platformed by Nature […]
  2. (transitive) To place on, or as if on, a platform.
    • 1844, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, To Flush, My Dog:
      And this dog was satisfied / If a pale thin hand would glide / Down his dewlaps sloping / Which he pushed his nose within, / After—platforming his chin / On the palm left open.
  3. (rail transport) To place a train alongside a station platform.
    • 2021 December 1, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Battery and hydrogen trains showcased to PM at COP26”, in RAIL, number 945, page 14:
      There he was welcomed onboard Vivarail's new three-car battery-powered train and Porterbrook's HydroFLEX hydrogen-powered train, which had been platformed side-by-side to showcase the potential of these low-carbon alternative technologies.
  4. (politics, transitive) To include in a political platform
    • 1955, Amy Lowell, Complete Poetical Works‎[8], page 408:
      Among them I scarcely can plot out one truth / Plain enough to be platformed by some voting sleuth / And paraded before the precinct polling-booth.
  5. (transitive) To publish or make visible; to provide a platform for (a topic etc.).
    Antonyms: deplatform, no-platform
  6. (film, transitive) To open (a film) in a small number of theaters before a broader release in order to generate enthusiasm.
    • 1981 September 2, Aljean Harmetz, “Comes Fall, a Chance for Serious Movies?”, in The New York Times‎[13], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 December 2023, page C21:
      But serious movies are not necessarily good movies. A studio that decides to platform a film had better be sure the film will get the necessary good reviews and audience approval. Otherwise, like United Artists' "A Small Circle of Friends," which was platformed around the same time as "The Elephant Man," the film will fail calamitously.
    • 1993 November 25, Bernard Weinraub, “For Movie Industry, Thanksgiving Means A Box-Office Feast”, in The New York Times‎[14], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 September 2025, page C11:
      Each of these films will be "platformed," the industry term to describe the strategy of opening a movie first in a limited number of theaters to give it an aura of exclusivity, then having its appeal build through word of mouth.
  7. (obsolete, transitive) To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.
    • 1642, John Milton, The Reason of Church-Government Urg’d against Prelaty; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 202:
      I have ſaid what is meet to ſome who do not think it for the eaſe of their inconſequent Opinions, to grant that Church-Diſcipline is platform'd in the Bible, but that it is left to the diſcretion of Men.

Further reading

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French plateforme.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈplɑt.fɔrm/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: plat‧form

Noun

platform n (plural platformen or platforms, diminutive platformpje n)

  1. a platform, flat surface, notably a dais or stage
  2. a political platform, (electoral) program
  3. a plateau
  4. a flat roof
  5. (obsolete) a ground-plan

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Afrikaans: platform
  • → Indonesian: platform

Hungarian

Etymology

From German Plattform, from French plateforme.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈplɒtform]
  • Hyphenation: plat‧form
  • Rhymes: -orm

Noun

platform (plural platformok)

  1. (politics) platform (electoral program)
  2. (computing) platform (a particular type of operating system or environment)
  3. platform (a flat surface)

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative platform platformok
accusative platformot platformokat
dative platformnak platformoknak
instrumental platformmal platformokkal
causal-final platformért platformokért
translative platformmá platformokká
terminative platformig platformokig
essive-formal platformként platformokként
essive-modal — —
inessive platformban platformokban
superessive platformon platformokon
adessive platformnál platformoknál
illative platformba platformokba
sublative platformra platformokra
allative platformhoz platformokhoz
elative platformból platformokból
delative platformról platformokról
ablative platformtól platformoktól
non-attributive
possessive – singular 		platformé platformoké
non-attributive
possessive – plural 		platforméi platformokéi
Possessive forms of platform
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. platformom platformjaim
2nd person sing. platformod platformjaid
3rd person sing. platformja platformjai
1st person plural platformunk platformjaink
2nd person plural platformotok platformjaitok
3rd person plural platformjuk platformjaik

Derived terms

  • platformfüggetlen

References

  1. ^ István Tótfalusi (2005), Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára [A Storehouse of Foreign Words: An Explanatory and Etymological Dictionary of Foreign Words], Budapest: Tinta, →ISBN

Further reading

  • platform in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch platform, from Middle French plateforme (Modern French plate-forme), from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat”)) + Latin fōrma (“shape; figure; form”).

Pronunciation

  • (Standard Indonesian) IPA(key): /ˈplatform/ [ˈplat̪̚.form]
  • Rhymes: -atform
  • Syllabification: plat‧form

Noun

platform (plural platform-platform)

  1. platform:
    1. a raised floor for any purpose
      Synonyms: anjungan, pelantar
    2. (computing) a software system used to provide online services to clients, such as social media, e-commerce, or cloud computing
    3. (computing) a particular operating system or environment such as a database or other specific software; a particular type of computer or microprocessor, used for running other software.
    4. a raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made
      Synonyms: panggung, pentas, mimbar
    5. (transport) a raised structure from which passengers can enter or leave a train, metro etc.
      Synonym: peron
    6. (politics) a political stance on a broad set of issues, which are called planks.
  2. sketch, model, pattern
    Synonym: pola
  3. plan
    Synonym: rencana
  4. synonym of program

Hyponyms

  • platform belanja
  • platform gaya
  • platform jejaring sosial
  • platform perdagangan

Further reading

Polish

Etymology

    See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ˈplat.fɔrm/
    • Rhymes: -atfɔrm
    • Syllabification: plat‧form

    Noun

    platform f

    1. genitive plural of platforma

    Turkish

    Etymology

      Borrowed from French plateforme.

      Noun

      platform (definite accusative platformu, plural platformlar)

      1. platform
      2. (transport, travel) platform

      Declension

      Declension of platform
      singular plural
      nominative platform platformlar
      definite accusative platformu platformları
      dative platforma platformlara
      locative platformda platformlarda
      ablative platformdan platformlardan
      genitive platformun platformların
      Possessive forms
      nominative
      singular plural
      1st singular platformum platformlarım
      2nd singular platformun platformların
      3rd singular platformu platformları
      1st plural platformumuz platformlarımız
      2nd plural platformunuz platformlarınız
      3rd plural platformları platformları
      definite accusative
      singular plural
      1st singular platformumu platformlarımı
      2nd singular platformunu platformlarını
      3rd singular platformunu platformlarını
      1st plural platformumuzu platformlarımızı
      2nd plural platformunuzu platformlarınızı
      3rd plural platformlarını platformlarını
      dative
      singular plural
      1st singular platformuma platformlarıma
      2nd singular platformuna platformlarına
      3rd singular platformuna platformlarına
      1st plural platformumuza platformlarımıza
      2nd plural platformunuza platformlarınıza
      3rd plural platformlarına platformlarına
      locative
      singular plural
      1st singular platformumda platformlarımda
      2nd singular platformunda platformlarında
      3rd singular platformunda platformlarında
      1st plural platformumuzda platformlarımızda
      2nd plural platformunuzda platformlarınızda
      3rd plural platformlarında platformlarında
      ablative
      singular plural
      1st singular platformumdan platformlarımdan
      2nd singular platformundan platformlarından
      3rd singular platformundan platformlarından
      1st plural platformumuzdan platformlarımızdan
      2nd plural platformunuzdan platformlarınızdan
      3rd plural platformlarından platformlarından
      genitive
      singular plural
      1st singular platformumun platformlarımın
      2nd singular platformunun platformlarının
      3rd singular platformunun platformlarının
      1st plural platformumuzun platformlarımızın
      2nd plural platformunuzun platformlarınızın
      3rd plural platformlarının platformlarının

      Synonyms

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