platforms

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of platform.

   Engineers inspected the raised platforms beside the railway tracks.

   The two parties published competing platforms ahead of the election.

   Note

   One plural serves every kind of platform, from the stage a speaker mounts to the raised strip beside the rails where passengers board. The political use keeps the carpentry: a party's platform is built from planks, the individual issues it stands on. So parties publish rival platforms and argue over which planks belong in them, and the figurative platforms for opinion or enterprise rest on the same raised-floor image.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of platform.

   The network platforms emerging journalists from underreported regions.

   She deliberately platforms voices that mainstream outlets overlook.

   Note

   The spelling is shared with the plural noun, so a phrase like "the network platforms" can read either way until the next word arrives. Most of the verb's uses take an object. Someone platforms a topic or a voice by giving it a stage. In film distribution, a studio platforms a film by opening it in a few theaters before a broader release.

3. 3
   nounabbreviationclipping

   Short for platform shoes, shoes built on thick raised soles.

   She slipped into a pair of towering platforms before heading to the club.

   The vintage shop displayed cork platforms from the seventies.

   Note

   A clipping that keeps the modifier and drops the noun: platform shoes is shortened to platforms, and the leftover word now names the shoes themselves. Because the clipped form lives in the plural, the singular is risky. A lone "platform" is far more likely to be heard as a stage or a station edge, so the full phrase platform shoe is the safer choice when you mean just one.

4. 4
   nounabbreviationclipping

   Short for platform boots, boots built on thick raised soles.

   The glam-rock singer stomped on stage in silver platforms that reached his knees.

   She zipped up her studded platforms for the goth club night.

   Note

   Boots get the same clipping as the shoe sense, and once shortened the two cannot be told apart. On its own, platforms names thick-soled footwear in general and leaves the height of the shaft unsaid. When it matters whether the wearer is in shoes or boots, the full phrase platform boots is the clear way to say so.

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