platform

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A horizontal surface raised above the level of the adjacent area, as a stage for public speaking or a landing alongside railroad tracks.
2. n. A vessel, such as a submarine or an aircraft carrier, from which weapons can be deployed.
3. n. An oil platform.
4. n. A place, means, or opportunity for public expression of opinion: a journal that served as a platform for radical views.
5. n. A vestibule at the end of a railway car.
6. n. A formal declaration of the principles on which a group, such as a political party, makes its appeal to the public.
7. n. A thick layer, as of leather or cork, between the inner and outer soles of a shoe, giving added height.
8. n. A shoe having such a construction.
9. n. Computer Science The basic technology of a computer system's hardware and software that defines how a computer is operated and determines what other kinds of software can be used.
10. n. Geology A flat elevated portion of ground.
11. n. Geology The ancient, stable, interior layer of a continental craton composed of igneous or metamorphic rocks covered by a thin layer of sedimentary rock.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A ground-plan, drawing, or sketch; a plan; a map.
2. n. A plot; a design; a scheme; a plan.
3. n. Situation; position.
4. n. A raised level place; a terrace.
5. n. A raised frame or structure with a level surface. Specifically— A raised structure in a hall or meeting-place for the use of those who are to speak; a rostrum or stage from which a speaker may conveniently address his audience.
6. n. Nautical, the orlop
7. n. In a glass-furnace, a bench on which the pots are placed.
8. n. A projecting floor or landing at the end of a railroad-car or street-car, serving as a means of ingress and egress.
9. n. Specifically A systematic scheme or body of principles, especially of religious or political principles, expressly adopted as a policy or basis of action; a syllabus, program, or scheme of principles or doctrines adopted as a basis of action, policy, or belief; specifically, in United States politics, a statement of political principles and of the course to be adopted with regard to certain important questions of policy, issued by the representatives of a political party assembled in convention to nominate candidates for an election: as, the Genevan platform; a political platform; the Democratic platform.
10. n. Figuratively, the function of public speaking, as that of lecturers or political speakers: also, public speeches or public addresses collectively.
11. To sketch or lay down the plan of; set forth in plan; outline.
12. To draw up a platform, or scheme of principles or policy.
13. To support or rest as on a platform.
14. n. In physical geography, a shallow sea-bottom near a continent; a continental shelf: as, the Patagonian platform.
15. n. In certain extinct genera of atrematous brachiopods (Trimerella, Monomerella, Lingulasma), a raised structure in the posterior portions of the valves, the surface of which served as places of attachment for muscles, while the cavities beneath stored the hepatic and reproductive glands.

Wiktionary

1. n. A raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made.
2. n. A place or an opportunity to express one's opinion, a tribune
3. n. A kind of high shoe with an extra layer between the inner and outer soles
4. n. automotive A set of components shared by several vehicle models.
5. n. 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.
6. n. politics A political stance on a broad set of issues, which are called planks.
7. n. travel A raised structure from which passengers can enter or leave a train, metro etc.
8. v. transitive To furnish with or shape into a platform
9. v. transitive To place on a platform.
10. v. obsolete, transitive To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.
11. v. politics (transitive) To include in a political platform

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A plat; a plan; a sketch; a model; a pattern. Used also figuratively.
2. n. obsolete A place laid out after a model.
3. n. Any flat or horizontal surface; especially, one that is raised above some particular level, as a framework of timber or boards horizontally joined so as to form a roof, or a raised floor, or portion of a floor; a landing; a dais; a stage, for speakers, performers, or workmen; a standing place.
4. n. A declaration of the principles upon which a person, a sect, or a party proposes to stand; a declared policy or system
5. n. (Naut.) A light deck, usually placed in a section of the hold or over the floor of the magazine. See Orlop.
6. v. rare To place on a platform.
7. v. obsolete To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a woman's shoe with a very high thick sole
2. n. any military structure or vehicle bearing weapons
3. n. a raised horizontal surface
4. n. the combination of a particular computer and a particular operating system
5. n. a document stating the aims and principles of a political party