platform

From Middle French plate-forme (“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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈplætfɔːm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈplætfɔɹm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: plat‧form

Platforms at Jamaica station on the Long Island Rail Road {LIRR)

platform (plural platforms)

1. A raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     “[…] 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.

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; a tribune.

   This new talk show will give a platform to everyday men and women.

4. A kind of high shoe with an extra layer between the inner and outer soles.
5. (figuratively) Something that allows an enterprise to advance; a foundation or stage.
   • 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Hodgson 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.

6. (automobiles) A set of components shared by several vehicle models.
7. (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.

   That program runs on the X Window System platform.

   • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, 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.

8. (geology) A flat expanse of rock, often the result of wave erosion.
9. (nautical) A light deck, usually placed in a section of the hold or over the floor of the magazine.
10. (politics) A political stance on a broad set of issues, which are called planks.
11. (travel) A raised structure from which passengers can enter or leave a train, metro etc.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

      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.

    • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):

      A “moving platform” scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. This set-up solves several problems […]. Stopping high-speed trains wastes energy and time, so why not simply slow them down enough for a moving platform to pull alongside?

12. (obsolete) A plan; a sketch; a model; a pattern.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

• dais
• podium

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, page 192:

     […] upon a smiling knoll platformed by Nature […]

2. (transitive) To place on, or as if on, a platform.
   • 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. (obsolete, transitive) To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Church discipline is platformed in the Bible.

4. (politics, transitive) To include in a political platform
   • 1955, Amy Lowell, Complete Poetical Works‎, 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.

• Platform in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• platform on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• platform (geology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From Middle French plate-forme.

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: plat‧form

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

• (physical) podium n, verhoog n
• (in a station) perron n
• (political) (kies)programma n
• (ground-plan) plattegrond

• kiesplatform n

From German Plattform, from French plate-forme.[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈplɒtform]
• Hyphenation: plat‧form

platform (plural platformok)

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

• platformfüggetlen

Borrowed from French plate-forme.

platform (definite accusative platformu, plural platformlar)

1. platform
2. (transport, travel) platform

• (travel): peron