Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A horizontal surface raised above the level of the adjacent area, as a stage for public speaking or a landing alongside railroad tracks.
  • noun A vessel, such as a submarine or an aircraft carrier, from which weapons can be deployed.
  • noun An oil platform.
  • noun A place, means, or opportunity for public expression of opinion.
  • noun A vestibule at the end of a railway car.
  • noun A formal declaration of the principles on which a group, such as a political party, makes its appeal to the public.
  • noun A thick layer, as of leather or cork, between the inner and outer soles of a shoe, giving added height.
  • noun A shoe having such a construction.
  • noun Computers The basic technology of a computer system's hardware and software that defines how a computer is operated and determines what other kinds of software can be used.
  • noun A flat elevated portion of ground.
  • noun The ancient, stable, interior layer of a continental craton composed of igneous or metamorphic rocks covered by a thin layer of sedimentary rock.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A ground-plan, drawing, or sketch; a plan; a map.
  • noun A plot; a design; a scheme; a plan.
  • noun Situation; position.
  • noun A raised level place; a terrace.
  • noun A raised frame or structure with a level surface.
  • noun Nautical, the orlop
  • noun In a glass-furnace, a bench on which the pots are placed.
  • noun A projecting floor or landing at the end of a railroad-car or street-car, serving as a means of ingress and egress.
  • noun Specifically A systematic scheme or body of principles, especially of religious or political principles, expressly adopted as a policy or basis of action; a syllabus, program, or scheme of principles or doctrines adopted as a basis of action, policy, or belief; specifically, in United States politics, a statement of political principles and of the course to be adopted with regard to certain important questions of policy, issued by the representatives of a political party assembled in convention to nominate candidates for an election: as, the Genevan platform; a political platform; the Democratic platform.
  • noun Figuratively, the function of public speaking, as that of lecturers or political speakers: also, public speeches or public addresses collectively.
  • To sketch or lay down the plan of; set forth in plan; outline.
  • To draw up a platform, or scheme of principles or policy.
  • To support or rest as on a platform.
  • noun In physical geography, a shallow sea-bottom near a continent; a continental shelf: as, the Patagonian platform.
  • noun In certain extinct genera of atrematous brachiopods (Trimerella, Monomerella, Lingulasma), a raised structure in the posterior portions of the valves, the surface of which served as places of attachment for muscles, while the cavities beneath stored the hepatic and reproductive glands.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A plat; a plan; a sketch; a model; a pattern. Used also figuratively.
  • noun obsolete A place laid out after a model.
  • noun Any flat or horizontal surface; especially, one that is raised above some particular level, as a framework of timber or boards horizontally joined so as to form a roof, or a raised floor, or portion of a floor; a landing; a dais; a stage, for speakers, performers, or workmen; a standing place.
  • noun A declaration of the principles upon which a person, a sect, or a party proposes to stand; a declared policy or system
  • noun (Naut.) A light deck, usually placed in a section of the hold or over the floor of the magazine. See Orlop.
  • noun a railway car without permanent raised sides or covering; a f�at.
  • noun a weighing machine, with a flat platform on which objects are weighed.
  • transitive verb rare To place on a platform.
  • transitive verb obsolete To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made.
  • noun A place or an opportunity to express one's opinion, a tribune
  • noun A kind of high shoe with an extra layer between the inner and outer soles
  • noun automotive A set of components shared by several vehicle models.
  • noun computing A particular type of operating system or environment such as a database or other specific software, and/or a particular type of computer or microprocessor, used to describe a particular environment for running other software, or for defining a specific software or hardware environment for discussion purposes.
  • noun politics A political stance on a broad set of issues, which are called planks.
  • noun travel A raised structure from which passengers can enter or leave a train, metro etc.
  • verb transitive To furnish with or shape into a platform
  • verb transitive To place on a platform.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.
  • verb politics (transitive) To include in a political platform

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a woman's shoe with a very high thick sole

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French plate-forme, diagram, from Old French : plat, flat; see plate + forme, form (from Latin fōrma).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Recorded since 1550, from Middle French plate-forme, literally "flat form", from Middle French plate "flat" (from Old French plat, of uncertain origin) + forme "form" (from Latin forma). Compare flatscape.

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