playland

[ pley-land ]

noun

1. an area used for recreation or amusement; playground or amusement park.
2. a town or city that relies heavily on its tourist trade to bolster its economy.

Word History and Origins

Origin of playland¹

First recorded in 1945–50; play + -land

Example Sentences

“As the curtains parted, we were engulfed by a curved, three-paneled screen that seemed to stretch as wide and as high as the limits of human vision while at the same time we were inundated by sounds that came at us from all directions ... as the camera placed us, with you-are-there immediacy, on the front seat of a roller coaster as it dips and glides, swerves and hurtles at breakneck speed over the tortuous course of a ride at the Rockaway Playland amusement park in New York.”

From Los Angeles Times

An internet archive shows in 2018 the "about" section of the site read, "America's Last Line of Defense is a whimsical playland of conservative satire" and "Everything on this website is fiction."

From Salon

As a drifter-janitor who fights possessed robotic animals at a Chuck E. Cheese-style playland in this action-horror mash-up, Cage doesn’t say a word.

From New York Times

It’s a 10-acre site that’s at times a children’s playland, wedding venue, organizing space and weapons training ground.

From Washington Times

“When I was a kid, I got to go to Playland, this creepy old amusement park by Ocean Beach. There was a funhouse with this mechanical woman, ‘Laffing Sal’.

From Los Angeles Times