playa

Borrowed from Spanish playa (“beach”). Doublet of plage.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈplaɪə/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə
• Hyphenation: play‧a

playa (plural playas)

1. (geology, US) A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely.
   • 2020, Diane Cook, The New Wilderness, Oneworld Publications, page 66:

     Beyond the valley below lay a playa, a vast dried-white lake bed, its ends reaching farther than they could see.

   • 2023 September 3, Michael Sainato, “Officials investigate death at Burning Man as thousands stranded by floods”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     “We are also deploying buses to Gerlach to take people to Reno who might walk off the playa. See our recommendations on when walking is viable or not. This is not likely a 24-hour operation at this time.”

• salt flat, salt pan, alkali flat

From a non-rhotic pronunciation of player

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpleɪə/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪə
• Hyphenation: play‧a

playa (plural playas) (African-American Vernacular, slang)

1. A dude (an informal term of address or general term to describe a person, typically male).
2. A player (someone who plays the field, or has prowess in gaining romantic and sexual relationships).
   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 27:

     What Pimp was asking me to do was crazy. Off the fuckin' chain. Insane. He was scheming to stick up T.C. and Miss Lady's pool hall so we could pay off G, but a playa like me was getting ready to go to college and put all that two-bit robbing and stealing shit behind me.

   • 2012, Zadie Smith, NW, London: Penguin Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 151:

     In the end, all the things Grace claimed to like about Marlon—that he was not a ‘playa’, that he was gentle and awkward and not interested in money—were all the reasons she left him.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

playa f (plural playas)

1. beach

• Bal Palazios, Santiago (2002), “playa”, in Dizionario breu de a luenga aragonesa, Zaragoza, →ISBN

playa f (plural playes)

1. beach
2. fishing ground
3. small valley, fertile valley

• “playa”, in Diccionariu de la llingua asturiana [Dictionary of the Asturian Language] (in Asturian), 1ª edición, Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, 2000, →ISBN
• Xosé Lluis García Arias (2002–2004), “playa (noun 1)”, in Diccionario general de la lengua asturiana [General Dictionary of the Asturian Language] (in Spanish), Editorial Prensa Asturiana, →ISBN
• Xosé Lluis García Arias (2002–2004), “playa (noun 2)”, in Diccionario general de la lengua asturiana [General Dictionary of the Asturian Language] (in Spanish), Editorial Prensa Asturiana, →ISBN

Borrowed from English playa, from Spanish playa (“beach”), from Late Latin plagia, from Latin plaga.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈplaja/ [ˈpla.ja]
• Rhymes: -aja
• Syllabification: pla‧ya

playa (plural playa-playa)

1. (hydrology) playa (a level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely)

• “playa”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

From Spanish playa.

playa

1. beach
2. "the town" (in Aruba)

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʝa
• Syllabification: pla‧ya

Inherited from Late Latin plagia, from Latin plaga. Compare Portuguese praia, French plage, Italian spiaggia.

• plasha (pronunciation spelling, representing Rioplatense Spanish)

playa f (plural playas)

1. beach

   Synonym: grao

   • 1989, “Aquí no hay playa”, performed by The Refrescos:

     Afirmaréis seguros que es la capital de España / Pero al llegar agosto, ¡vaya, vaya! / Aquí no hay playa

     You will surely affirm that it is the capital of Spain / But when August arrives, wow, wow! / There is no beach here

2. car park

   Synonyms: estacionamiento, aparcamiento

• ⇒ Cebuano: aplaya
• → English: playa
• → Papiamentu: playa
• → Swedish: playa
• ⇒ Tagalog: aplaya

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

playa

1. feminine singular of playo

• “playa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• “playa”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010

Borrowed from Spanish playa.

playa c

1. a (large) beach (at a southern holiday destination)

• badlakan
• badstrand
• parasoll
• sand
• solkräm

• playa in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• playa in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)