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roleplay

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To act out a scenario or fantasy with another person or other people.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rohlplay

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹoʊlpleɪ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To act out a scenario or fantasy with another person or other people.

  2. transitiveintransitive

    To act out a social role, especially one that one does not truly belong to.

  3. transitive

    To act as a character as part of a fantasy, especially with a group.

noun

  1. The act or practice of roleplaying; an instance of roleplaying.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To act out a scenario or fantasy with another person or other people.

Used this way, roleplay is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

roleplay situationroleplay areathrough roleplayroleplay testsroleplay exerciseroleplay simulationusing roleplay

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • roleplayingnounInflected form

    Acting a particular role (as in psychotherapy).

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: act or practice of roleplaying

actplay

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.