platform

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A horizontal surface raised above the level of the adjacent area, as a stage for public speaking or a landing alongside railroad tracks.
• noun A vessel, such as a submarine or an aircraft carrier, from which weapons can be deployed.
• noun An oil platform.
• noun A place, means, or opportunity for public expression of opinion.
• noun A vestibule at the end of a railway car.
• noun A formal declaration of the principles on which a group, such as a political party, makes its appeal to the public.
• noun A thick layer, as of leather or cork, between the inner and outer soles of a shoe, giving added height.
• noun A shoe having such a construction.
• noun Computers 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.
• noun A flat elevated portion of ground.
• noun The ancient, stable, interior layer of a continental craton composed of igneous or metamorphic rocks covered by a thin layer of sedimentary rock.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A ground-plan, drawing, or sketch; a plan; a map.
• noun A plot; a design; a scheme; a plan.
• noun Situation; position.
• noun A raised level place; a terrace.
• noun A raised frame or structure with a level surface.
• noun Nautical, the orlop
• noun In a glass-furnace, a bench on which the pots are placed.
• noun A projecting floor or landing at the end of a railroad-car or street-car, serving as a means of ingress and egress.
• noun 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.
• noun Figuratively, the function of public speaking, as that of lecturers or political speakers: also, public speeches or public addresses collectively.
• noun In physical geography, a shallow sea-bottom near a continent; a continental shelf: as, the Patagonian platform.
• noun 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.
• To sketch or lay down the plan of; set forth in plan; outline.
• To draw up a platform, or scheme of principles or policy.
• To support or rest as on a platform.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb rare To place on a platform.
• transitive verb obsolete To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.
• noun obsolete A plat; a plan; a sketch; a model; a pattern. Used also figuratively.
• noun obsolete A place laid out after a model.
• noun 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.
• noun A declaration of the principles upon which a person, a sect, or a party proposes to stand; a declared policy or system
• noun (Naut.) A light deck, usually placed in a section of the hold or over the floor of the magazine. See Orlop.
• noun a railway car without permanent raised sides or covering; a f�at.
• noun a weighing machine, with a flat platform on which objects are weighed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a woman's shoe with a very high thick sole