Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To give enjoyment, pleasure, or satisfaction to; make glad or contented.
- v. To be the will or desire of: May it please the court to admit this firearm as evidence.
- v. To give satisfaction or pleasure; be agreeable: waiters who try hard to please.
- v. To have the will or desire; wish: Do as you please. Sit down, if you please.
- adv. If it is your desire or pleasure; if you please. Used in polite requests: Please stand back. Pay attention, please.
- adv. Yes. Used in polite affirmative replies to offers: May I help you? Please.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To be agreeable to; suit; satisfy; seem good to: used impersonally, and followed by an object, originally dative, of the person: same as like, I. This impersonal construction with the indirect object of the person has given way in more familiar use to a personal construction, the original dative you, in if you please, for example, being now taken as the subject. (See II., 1.) The word in this sense was formerly common in polite request, may it please you, or if it please you, or, elliptically, please you: a mode of speech still common in addressing a judge or persons of rank or position : as, may it please the court; if it please your honor; please your worship; etc. Compare II., 1.
- To excite agreeable sensations or emotions in; impart satisfaction, gratification, pleasure, or delight to; gratify; content.
- To think fit or have the complaisance or kindness; condescend; be good enough; be so kind as: an expression of courtesy, often used ironically.
- Synonyms To rejoice, gladden, make glad.
- To like; choose; think fit: as, do as you please.
- To give pleasure; win approval.
Wiktionary
- adv. Used to make a polite request.
- adv. Used as an affirmative to an offer.
- adv. An expression of annoyance or impatience.
- v. transitive To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure.
- v. intransitive, ergative To desire; to will; to be pleased.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To give pleasure to; to excite agreeable sensations or emotions in; to make glad; to gratify; to content; to satisfy.
- v. To have or take pleasure in; hence, to choose; to wish; to desire; to will.
- v. To be the will or pleasure of; to seem good to; -- used impersonally.
- v. To afford or impart pleasure; to excite agreeable emotions.
- v. To have pleasure; to be willing, as a matter of affording pleasure or showing favor; to vouchsafe; to consent.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. used in polite request
- v. give satisfaction
- v. be the will of or have the will (to)
- v. give pleasure to or be pleasing to
Etymologies
- Middle English plesen, plaisen, from Old French plaise, conjugated form of plaisir or plaire, from Latin placēre ("to please, to seem good"), from the Proto-Indo-European *plā-k- (“wide and flat”). Displaced native Middle English quemen, queamen ("to please") (from Old English cwēman ("to please")), Middle English biluvien ("to please, delight") (from Middle English bi-, be- + luvien ("to love")), Middle English liken ("to like, please") (from Old English līcian ("to please, be like")), Middle English lusten, listen ("to be pleasing, delight") (from Old English lystan ("to please")). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English plesen, from Old French plaisir; see pleasant. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The opening chapter of the book here under discussion elicited a raspberry note to budding Scenarists: opening the text with camera directions gives the game away; and please please *please* no more references to that a-photograph-steals-the-soul riff, which I first happened upon in the Ur-text called...”
“Great idea, but please *please* promise you won't do that again!”
“So please, you whisper to yourself, trying to telepathically bully everyone else in the room--*please* don't ask any questions.”
“I'm in Boston and I'm not going to phone you because I'm scared you'd hang up, so I'm just arriving at Wooly on Thursday, and for God's sake please, _please_ see me and hear me, my dear, darling friend.”
“Did Louise Littleton suspect, as I did, what she was to "please, _please_ ... hear" and its ramifications?”
“Please, please, _please_!" they pleaded in chorus.”
“Harry, thus free to marry, had persuaded Rose to wait no longer; the event was to be on a Monday not quite two weeks ahead, and Norma was please, _please_, PLEASE to come down as soon as she could.”
“Oh please -- _please_!" was the girl's panic-stricken whisper.”
“Julie," he whispered, "my darling, say you'll marry me -- please, _please_!”
“Oh, please, don't when I ask you; _please_," says she.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘please’.
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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multiple meaning words
These words seem very familiar but are awfully-versatile and oftentimes serve senses exceptionally beyond people's presumptions ...
sense, serve, please, say, profile, draw, weather, bear, project, ship, profiler, tune and 140 more...
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EN - Glasgow stop list
Words to be replaced by a paragraph mark if you are after terms and MWEs.
yours, yourself, yet, your, without, you, within, will, yourselves, would, why, with and 291 more...
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FUN - Beatles song titles
Typical words from Beatles song titles. Can you recreate the titles?
(Grammatical words have been omitted)polythene, Sun King, rhythm and blues, taxman, tripper, monkey business, mailman, matchbox, rock and roll, ooh, blue jay, reprise and 388 more...
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Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
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Pretty Please
With sugar on top.
please, pretty please, pretty please wit..., subjunctive please, please please me ..., pretty please wit..., if it pleases the..., if it pleases and..., at Her Majesty's ..., s'il vous plait, silahkan, if it please the ... and 18 more...
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GAHHHHH!!!
you see, i like this boy, but, he doesnt want a ..., and this other gi..., as well, and her, boobs, are bigger than mine, and he likes boobs, and i think she l..., and now hes spend... and 47 more...
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broken
unable, to, complete, request, sorry, something, has, gone, terribly, wrong, When, the and 35 more...
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[Open] Stative Verbs
Definition Many of these can also be dynamic.
Please just list bare infinitives to keep the list wieldy. Perhaps a tag (e.g., “stative”) would be sufficient for participles.)act, amaze, appear, appreciate, astonish, become, believe, belong, cost, feel, get, hate and 53 more...
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Serendipity's Words
defenestration, mercurial, syzygy, wicked, iniquitous, metastable, demimonde, entropic, ephemeral, irreligious, frisbee, manifold and 474 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Favorite words
List of my favorite words
please, thank you, love, freedom, water, food, ocean, health
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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loinfruit's Words
buddy, hungry, hug, want, you, i, mommy, school, ballet, sign, sign language, language and 170 more...
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Favorite Words of AWP13
We asked attendees who visited the Wordnik booth what their favorite words were, and these are what they told us. (AWP is an annual conference for writers and those in the writing world.)
cling, declivity, susurrus, caramel, cataract, please, fester, reverie, kerplunk!, defenestration, colonel, ocean and 174 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for please.

anydelirium '"He simply said, 'Please. Please, I need to live.' Twas the please that caught my memory. I asked what was so important for him. 'True love,' he replied."' -Westley, from The Princess Bride Feb 19, 2008