display

UK/dɪsˈpleɪ/US/dɪsˈpleɪ/

nounB27 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,709 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: displayed, displays, displaying

A display is a set of things arranged so that people will look at them. Cakes behind glass in a bakery, trainers stacked up the back of a shop window, medals laid out on velvet in a museum case.

It is also the screen you are reading this on — a cracked display, a six-inch display, the display on the cooker that has shown the wrong time since March. Events take the word as well: a firework display, a flying display, a display of horsemanship. So does behaviour, especially behaviour performed for an audience, as in a display of temper or a public display of affection. As a verb it means to put on view: the shop displays its prices in the window, the sign displays the platform number, and male birds display to attract a mate. On display is the fixed phrase — the crown jewels are on display, and so, at a bad meeting, is somebody's ego.

Definitions of display

1noundisplayAn arrangement of things put out to be looked at.B2
“The window display changes every Monday morning.”
synonyms: exhibition, arrangement
2nounmonitorA screen that shows information.B1
“The display went black halfway through the film.”
synonyms: screen, monitor
3nounspectacleA public performance or show.B2
“The firework display starts at nine.”
synonyms: show, spectacle
4nounexhibitionAn act of showing a feeling or quality openly.B2
“It was an ugly display of temper in front of the children.”
synonyms: show, exhibition
5verbexhibitTo put something where people can see it.B2
“The gallery displays the sketches beside the finished painting.”
synonyms: exhibit, show, present
6verbpresentTo show information on a screen.B2
“The app displays your heart rate as you run.”
synonyms: show, present
7verbbehaveTo show a feeling or quality by how you behave.B2
“He displayed no interest in the offer at all.”
synonyms: show, exhibit

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

display is an arrangement made to be seen.

Phrases it lives in

on display — put out where everyone can see it

Where it comes from

Display comes from Middle English displayen, through Anglo-Norman despleier from Medieval Latin displicare, 'to unfold' — Latin dis-, 'apart', with plicāre, 'to fold'. A display is a thing unfolded: a banner shaken out so the whole army can see it. Deploy is the same word arriving by another road, which is why armies deploy and shops display.

Proto-Indo-European
*pleḱ-
Latin
dis- — apart
Medieval Latin
displicare — to unfold, display
Old French
despleier
Anglo-Norman
despleier
Middle English
displayen
English, today
display

Built from

plicāre · Latin — to fold

From Middle English displayen, from Anglo-Norman despleier and Old French despleier, desploiier, from Medieval Latin displicare (“to unfold, display”), from Latin dis- (“apart”) + plicāre (“to fold”). a doublet of deploy.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Marketing & Advertising

First appears in chapter 1 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

display in the wild

Video is an electronic medium used for the recording, copying, playback, transmission, and display of moving visual images and pictures, with or without accompanying audio.
Video
The touch panel is typically layered on the top of the electronic visual display of a device.
Touchscreen
The display is often an LCD, AMOLED or OLED display.
Touchscreen
The most common aspect ratios for graphics displays are 4:3, 16:10 (equal to 8:5), 16:9, and 21:9.
Display resolution standards
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study.
Taxidermy

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.