From play +‎ ground. Compare Middle English playstede (“playground”) from Old English pleġstede.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpleɪɡɹaʊnd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: play‧ground

playground (plural playgrounds)

1. (outdoors) A large open space for children to play in, usually having dedicated play equipment (such as swings and slides). [1780^[1]]

   The kids have to go to the playground during recess, no matter the weather.

   The local council have set up a new playground, equipped with slides, swings, and a climbing wall.

   • 2025 October 15, Vitali Vitaliev, “The recipe for Swiss bliss”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 68:

     Where else in the world can you pre-order sushi and fondue on some of the trains, travel in family carriages equipped with mini-playgrounds, or use a request stop button at some small stations? Where else can you hear the announcement: "The train at Platform 4 is ten minutes late due to an incident in another country," as I did once at the Swiss station of Spiez?

2. (figuratively) Any physical or metaphysical space in which a person or organization has free rein to do as they please.

   The exclusive tropical island was a millionaire's playground.

   • 1955 July, M. D. Greville, “To the Valdres by Rail”, in Railway Magazine, pages 457-458:

     Kjelsås (six miles) marks the end of the suburbs, and the line immediately plunges into Nordmarka. This vast untamed area of forest and mountain (much of it over 2,000 ft. above sea level), interspersed with innumerable lakes, large and small, is known as Oslo's playground.

3. (programming) A sandbox for testing calls to an application programming interface.

Unadapted borrowing from English playground.

• Hyphenation: play‧ground

playground m (plural playgrounds) (Brazil)

1. playground (open-air space where the children can play)

   Synonym: parque infantil

2. (by extension) playground (space to do what one pleases)

   Synonym: recreio (Portugal)

• “playground”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “playground”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026