Platform

Pronunciation

• \ˈplat-ËŒfȯrm\

Origin

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

Full definition of platform

Noun

1. A raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 13, “… 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 place or an opportunity to express one's opinion, a tribune.
   This new talk show will give a platform to everyday men and women.
3. A kind of high shoe with an extra layer between the inner and outer soles.
4. (figurative)
• 2012, September 7, Phil McNulty, Moldova 0-5 England, 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.
5. (automobiles) A set of components shared by several vehicle models.
6. (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.
• 2013-06-01, End of the peer show, 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.
7. That program runs on the X Window System platform.
8. (politics) A political stance on a broad set of issues, which are called planks.
9. (travel) A raised structure from which passengers can enter or leave a train, metro etc.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 5, 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.
• 2013-06-01, Ideas coming down the track, 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?
10. (obsolete) A plan; a sketch; a model; a pattern.
11. (nautical) A light deck, usually placed in a section of the hold or over the floor of the magazine.
12. A flat expanse of rock often as a result of wave erosion.

Synonyms

• dais
• podium

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive) To furnish with or shape into a platform
• ... upon a smiling knoll platformed by Nature ...
2. (transitive) To place on a platform.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.Church discipline is platformed in the Bible. — Milton.
4. (politics, transitive) 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.