platform

A raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made.

Noun

  1. A raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made.
    • 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. - 1915, Russell H. Conwell,...
    • “[…] 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...

    Synonyms: dais podium

  2. A raised floor for any purpose, e.g. for workmen during construction, or formerly for military cannon.
  3. A place or an opportunity to express one's opinion.
    • This new talk show will give a platform to everyday men and women.
    • [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. - 2021 September 28, Scott...

    Synonyms: tribune

  4. Something that allows an enterprise to advance.
    • 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. - 2012...

    Synonyms: foundation stage

  5. A political stance on a broad set of issues, which are called planks.
    • 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...
    • 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. - 1936, Communist Election Platform 1936, New York City:...
    • 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. -...
  6. A raised structure or other area alongside rails or a driveway alongside which vehicles stop to take in and discharge passengers.
    • 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...
    • People on the platforms / Waiting for the trains / I can hear their hearts a-beatin’ / Like pendulums swinging on chains - 1997, Bob Dylan, “Tryin' to Get to Heaven”, in Time Out of Mind:
    • 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...
  7. A specific stopping place on one of multiple tracks at a station, numbered or otherwise named.
    • “Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine — platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don’t seem to have built it yet, do they?” - 1997 June 26, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling],...

    Synonyms: track

  8. Ellipsis of platform shoe (“a kind of high shoe with an extra layer between the inner and outer soles”).
    • Now open the album cover! How fabulous! The four of them [the Pointer Sisters] in platforms of death, tacky gowns, and "reflections of." - 1973 August 25, Jim Fournier, “Lo♡in' Mu𝄚ic”, in Gay Community News, volume 1,...
    • 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. - 2001 [1999], Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, New York:...
  9. A software system used to provide online services to clients, such as social media, e-commerce, or cloud computing.
    • 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...
    • In fact, wealth and power are shifting to those who control the platforms on which all of us create, consume, and connect. - 2014, Astra Taylor, “Preface”, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the...
    • 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. - 2021 September 15, Reeves...
  10. 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.
    • “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...
  11. Ellipsis of car platform (“a set of components shared by several vehicle models”).
    • 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...
  12. A flat expanse of rock, often the result of wave erosion.
    • 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. - 2019,...

Origin

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.

Forms

platforms

Derived

abrasion platform aerial work platform bay platform cross-platform dance platform deplatform diving platform elevating work platform flatform inner-platform effect interplatform intraplatform mobile elevated work platform mobile elevating work platform monoplatform multi-platform multiplatform nanoplatform non-platform no-platform orbital defense platform periplatform platform balance platform bed

Verb

  1. To furnish with or shape into a platform
    • […] upon a smiling knoll platformed by Nature […] - 1885, Frances Elliot, The Diary of an Idle Woman in Sicily, page 192:
  2. To place on, or as if on, a platform.
    • 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. - 1844, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, To...
  3. To place a train alongside a station platform.
    • 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...
  4. To include in a political platform
    • 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. - 1955, Amy Lowell, Complete Poetical Works, page 408:
  5. To publish or make visible; to provide a platform for (a topic etc.).
    • We want to platform the larger, unspoken issue of menstrual health and hygiene of women at work, and how we as a society need to start taking cognizance of it and start adopting measures to help our women workforce...
    • If Buckley were still alive today, could a university get away with platforming him in a debate? - 2020 July 29, Conor Friedersdorf, “Purity Politics Makes Nothing Happen”, in The Atlantic:
    • Half of the lawsuits against Pina also named Envy (real name: Raashaun Casey), blaming the DJ for platforming Pina on The Breakfast Club and social media. - 2023 December 17, Andrew Lawrence, “It platformed an alleged...

    Antonyms: deplatform no-platform

  6. To open (a film) in a small number of theaters before a broader release in order to generate enthusiasm.
    • 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...
    • 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...
  7. To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.
    • 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. - 1642, John...

Forms

platforms platforming platformed