Dictionary

playbook en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpleɪ.buːk/ still sometimes Northern England; otherwise obsolete
• plā'bo͝ok
• /ˈplebʉk/ (Northern-Ireland, Scotland)
• plā'bo͞ok
• (US) audio
• /ˈpleɪ.bʊk/

Etymology

From play + book.

Meanings

1. A book containing the text of a play or plays.
   • Near-synonym: play
2. A book of games and amusements for children.
   • Near-synonym: gamebook
3. (US) A book of strategies (plays) for use in American football (and by extension other sports or disciplines).
4. (figuratively) A book or (especially) any set of commonly employed tactics, strategies, and tips.
   • Near-synonyms: cookbook, run book
   • “No one has a playbook for this,” said Dan Levin, who runs a small company outside Chicago, Cain Millwork, which makes furniture and wall paneling. He said he was planning to have some of his office employees work from home. 2020 March 5, Mike Isaac, David Yaffe-Bellany, Karen Weise, “Workplace vs. Coronavirus: ‘No One Has a Playbook for This’”, in New York Times:
   • The company has built its business on the motto “everything is a recommendation”—the company likes to brag that it tailors every aspect of its interface for each individual user. It’s a playbook the company perfected with House of Cards, which was a tremendous gamble for the business of television when Netflix launched the show in 2013. 2017 March 21, Ed Finn, “The Corrupt Personalization of Netflix”, in Slate:
   • But since closing his $44 billion buyout of Twitter last week, Mr. Musk has followed a surprisingly conventional social media playbook. 2022 November 2, Kate Conger, Ryan Mac, Tiffany Hsu, “Elon Musk Takes a Page Out of Mark Zuckerberg’s Social Media Playbook”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Security administrators can create a series of runbooks and playbooks that can be used in response to a wide range of incident response activities. 2021, Arthur Conklin, Greg White, Chuck Cothren, Roger L. Davis, Dwayne Williams, Principles of Computer Security, McGraw Hill, →ISBN, page 542:
   • How Kieran Trippier bent it like Beckham to score England's brilliant World Cup opener against Croatia [title] […] That was an old school free-kick from Kieran Trippier, straight out of the David Beckham playbook. His aim is to get as much whip and dip on the ball as possible. Trippier addresses the side of the ball, plants his left foot alongside it and his right takes care of the rest. The way he wraps his foot around the ball generates a top-spin effect, like a sweetly struck forehand from Rafael Nadal. 2018 July 12, Jamie Redknapp, “How Kieran Trippier bent it like Beckham to score England's brilliant World Cup opener against Croatia”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 Mar 2025:
   • This isn’t merely a gamble on May’s part. It’s an act of reckless political daring. It’s straight out of Danton’s playbook on boldness – de l’audace, et encore de l’audace, et toujours de l’audace. And look what happened to Danton – he lost his head. 2017 March 17, Martin Kettle, “We used to think Theresa May was a safe pair of hands. We can no longer say that”, in The Guardian:
   • A Look at Satan's "Playbook" 1994, Charles R. Wood, Sermon Outlines on Prayer, page 39:
   • "It is striking how poorly his usual playbook will work for the Epstein files debacle," Ford wrote, adding that Trump "cannot credibly claim that he is the victim of some kind of 'witch hunt,' even though he is trying to do so." 2025 July 22, Jennifer Bowers Bahney, “'Struggling' Trump spirals as 'usual playbook' fails to get him out of jam: report”, in Raw Story:

Forms

Coordinates

teleplay · telescript · screenplay · playbill · radioplay

Deriveds

rip a page out of someone's playbook · take a page out of someone's playbook

Hypernyms

drama · script

Synonyms

toolkit · cookbook · play · gamebook · run book

Translations (5)

pl instrukcja (Translations) · es manual estratégico (Translations) · es libro de jugadas (Translations) · es prontuario táctico (Translations) · pl przewodnik (Translations)