Other forms: replays, replayed, replaying
To replay is to play something over again. Replay the tape, replay the match, replay it in your head.
In sport a replay is a whole match played again after a draw, and an action replay is the film shown back — two quite different things sharing a word. Video assistant systems have made replay part of the decision rather than the coverage. Figuratively, to replay a conversation is to go over it in your head.
1verbreplayTo play something over again.
“The referee replayed the video to check whether the ball had crossed the line.”
2nounmatchA match played again after a draw.
“The cup tie ended in a draw, so the two teams will meet again in a replay next week.”
replay is a playing again.
Middle English
pleyen
English
play
English, today
replay
Built from
From re- + play. play comes from Middle English pleyen. From Middle English pleyen and Middle English pleye, from Old English plegian and plegan, plagian (“to play, exercise, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic plehan (“to care about, be concerned with”) and Proto-West Germanic plegōn (“to engage, move”), of uncertain origin. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA