Other forms: plaited, plaits, plaiting
A plait is three lengths of hair woven over one another. A French plait, plait your hair, a loose plait.
It is the British word; American English says braid, and the two mean exactly the same thing. Three strands is the standard and more are possible. A French plait picks up hair as it goes down the head. Note the pronunciation, which rhymes with flat in Britain; and that plait and pleat are the same word, both meaning a fold.
1nounplaitThree lengths of hair woven over one another.
“She wore her hair in a long plait down her back.”
2verbweaveTo weave hair or strands together.
“Her mother plaited her long hair before school every morning.”
plait is a woven arrangement.
Also accepted in games: braid
Anglo-Norman pleit comes from Latin plicare, to fold. Pleat is the same word, and ply, complicated and simple come from the same folding.
Latin
plectō
Anglo-Norman
pleit
Middle English
pleit
English, today
plait
From Middle English pleit, from Anglo-Norman pleit (compare Old French ploit), from Latin plectō, which is akin to Old Norse flétta (Danish flette), Russian плести́ and also to Old English fleohtan, which it displaced. a doublet of plight and pleat.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA