1A raised level surface on which people or things can stand.

1. 1.1 A raised floor or stage used by public speakers or performers so that they can be seen by their audience.
   as modifier he was a popular platform speaker

   she was good enough to earn her living on the concert platform

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Here were three instrumentalists at the top of their craft; as talented and complete a trinity of musicians as ever came together to perform on a public platform.
   • On many occasions the audience was far more radical than the speakers on the platform.
   • I have heard a Communist speaker on the platform grow very angry about it.
   • She ignored calls from the audience and the speakers on the platform for the resolution to be put.
   • Kevin Kline addressed the question in the imaginary audience of courtiers that would soon surround the platform stage.
   • Last month, she even appeared on the same platform as former House speaker Newt Gingrich to discuss healthcare reform.
   • The demonstration moved to Trafalgar Square, where people gathered to hear speakers on a platform organised by the Stop the War coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain.
   • Only one was present at the meeting, and he was on the speaker's platform.
   • Badly scripted, obvious rhetoric is spewed from a platform of speakers.
   • While a changed mood may have been perceptible among the marchers, there was little to distinguish the message that came from the speakers' platforms from those offered in previous protests.
   • In line with this, the speakers' platforms at many and varied protest demonstrations featured Democrats or Greens senators.
   • He was to speak on a specially built circular stage in the centre of the arena, linked by a platform used by other speakers.
   • It is a demanding play but it is staged with exemplary clarity by director Erica Whyman and designer Soutra Gilmour, who simply places the speaker on a bare-boards platform.
   • When I explained my decision from a public platform two weeks ago, a young woman in the audience argued that there were important domestic policies at risk that took precedence over the war.
   • Speakers on the platform included John Gilligan and Tony McMahon of Ennis and Shannon and Cllrs.
   • Neither Boulange, nor any of the speakers from the platform or the floor made this statement.
   • They made me stand on the platform in front of the podium.
   • Sinn Fein speakers shared platforms there with socialists.
   • Carreras resumed his career, gradually returning to the opera stage and the concert platform as well as to the recording studio.
   • Organizations will be prohibited from setting up platforms for speakers, even though they have been granted permits to protest.

   Synonyms

   stage, dais, stand, rostrum, podium, soapbox

   Indian mandapam
2. 1.2 A raised structure along the side of a railway track where passengers get on and off trains at a station.
   he walked along Platform 2

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It is within sight of the main platform of the train station but inaccessible except by car or a long trudge down suburban streets.
   • A replica of the elephant Bholu stands on the platform, welcoming the visitors into the 12-coach exhibition on wheels.
   • There is also a platform for special passenger trains that is only in use when a race is on.
   • Escalators and elevators await arriving passengers from both subway platforms at the Howard Beach station.
   • A family of drunken louts have been sent to jail for train hooliganism and fighting police on the platform of York Railway Station.
   • Strathclyde Police spent six hours looking for the boy until he was noticed by railway staff on the platform of Macclesfield Station in Cheshire shortly before 9pm.
   • While effective separation on mainline long-distance passenger trains was long entrenched, station platforms and suburban trains in the Cape were not so tightly controlled.
   • Incidents of vandalism, rowdiness and violence on trains and railway platforms have been well documented in the pages of the Keighley News.
   • It means that goods can be transferred on passenger platforms on the railways - perfect for low-volume rail distribution in remote areas or even city centres.
   • The camera fast tracks along a London train station platform as the passengers disembark and rush toward us.
   • They also say that loving someone, even though you know that particular someone will never love you back, is like waiting at the platform of a train station for a taxicab.
   • When did you know you would create a subway platform?
   • The Prince of Wales got a warm welcome when he stepped on to the platform at Skipton Railway Station on Monday for his fourth visit to the area in as many years.
   • They land on the platform of the railway station.
   • The grainy footage, broadcast on television, showed other passengers on the platform and on the train looking stunned.
   • In March 1955 family members paid a penny each to venture onto the platform at York Railway Station to wave off newly-weds Gladys and Bernard Hewitt.
   • If passengers have tickets or if someone is on the platform, the train stops.
   • Workers created a railway platform and dressed up as characters from the hugely popular children's books.
   • We saw one passenger running on the platform trying to get the train to stop with no luck.
   • Rail chiefs say the whistle is so loud it makes passengers hurry onto trains rather than dawdling along the platform - and makes trains stick to timetables.
3. 1.3British The floor area at the entrance to a bus.
4. 1.4 A raised structure standing in the sea from which oil or gas wells can be drilled or regulated.
   offshore platforms

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Production is expected in the range of 8-10,000 barrels of oil per day from 8 wells to be drilled from the platform.
   • The birds may be fatally attracted to lighthouses, offshore drilling platforms, and the high-intensity lamps used by fishermen to lure squid to the surface.
   • Sources said the helicopter was transporting workers from an offshore platform at Pt Galeota to Piarco.
   • After we know the extent of the reserves there, we'll invest in a platform to start drilling.
   • Offshore oil rigs and platforms, refineries along the Gulf Coast all closed tonight ahead of the hurricane.
   • This hazard has led some scientists to suggest that retrieving the hydrate intact and then liquefying it on ships or drilling platforms is a better approach.
   • Large plastic pipes run from the outlet of the four blowers to airtight holes drilled in the platform.
   • The US government said on Wednesday that it could take up to 90 days to restore production at offshore drilling platforms that were destroyed by Hurricane Ivan.
   • The idea is to build giant, floating military bases much like offshore, oil-drilling platforms - only much, much bigger.
   • It was a large first step before offshore drilling from floating platforms was even envisioned.
   • They yesterday evacuated 485 non-essential staff from their 14 offshore platforms and two drilling rigs.
   • Oil companies are also hopeful that the system will save them millions by detecting strong underwater currents that can stress oil rig platforms.
   • Right now most of the work Denny does is for a group of oil companies that have drilling platforms in the North Atlantic about 350 miles east of St. John's.
   • The world's largest offshore oil platform is still on an unsteady angle in the Gulf of Mexico.
   • Zoning out at night while swimming from a large platform oil rig to a tanker was one thing.
   • A fishing boat's crew sighted the sinking ship, sounded the alarm and began to organise a rescue operation, in which a number of boats from nearby oil-rig platforms took part.
   • Until that moment the existence of mobile oil platforms had been kept a closely guarded commercial secret.
   • He added Aberdeen as the base for North Sea oil rigs and platforms.
   • What happens in the case of oil drilling platforms?
   • On various episodes we've seen people living in caves, up in trees, on old offshore drilling platforms, and in abandoned missile silos.
5. 1.5usually with modifier A raised structure or orbiting satellite from which rockets or missiles may be launched.
   the launch platform

   orbiting weapons platforms

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It can be configured for launch from multiple platforms - from land, ships, submarines and aircraft.
   • We've got multiple contacts headed toward the launch platform.
   • Logistical problems that affect one weapon platform do not affect a totally different one.
   • The non-ballistic flight path of the missile via waypoints assists in preventing location of the launch platforms from the flight trajectory.
   • Brimstone is a fully fire and forget system, requiring no further interaction from the launch platform nor a post launch target designator.
   • Part of the landing craft remained on the Moon to be used as a launch platform; the rest was used to carry the astronauts back to lunar orbit.
   • It takes less than 2 minutes to replenish the weapon platform with missiles.
   • One of the missiles accidentally missed the launch platform and fell onto the Heliopolis lake shore.
   • They removed the flags that were draped over the two torpedo cases that sat in the launch platform.
   • The bus will take us to the launch platform, with the traditional toilet stop halfway, where we will briefly report to a commission again.
   • This was used as the air launch platform for the first six commercially developed Pegasus rocket boosters.
   • Those assassins who had tried to shoot Erica on the launch platform now captured a starship.
   • The Ohio class submarines serve the United States Navy as the virtually undetectable undersea launch platforms of intercontinental missiles.
   • It is qualified as a launch platform for the laser-guided anti-armour missile.
   • And that's the likely launch platform for another attack.
   • China has confirmed that it is to build a new satellite launching platform, its fourth, in its southern province of Hainan.
   • He could see dozens of low buildings and the big black launch platform where Rocket One would be sitting in only three months time.
   • Ty has co-opted all the Legos to build a tall launch platform, so high there is no room to add the rocket.
   • The launch platform aligns the munition for firing and ensures the connection of the mechanical, electrical and optronic interfaces.
   • The event marked the first launch of the Tactical Tomahawk from an operational submarine launch platform.
6. 1.6 A standard for the hardware of a computer system, which determines what kinds of software it can run.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Multiple hardware platforms for digital photography can currently be used in a pathology laboratory.
   • We plan to support more hardware platforms and operating systems.
   • The days of multiple hardware platforms and operating systems working with multiple databases and software configurations within one enterprise are coming to a close.
   • One aspect of using hardware platforms for enabling software is that it inevitably requires porting of existing software solutions onto the platform.
   • The number of devices, screen sizes, operating platforms, and support levels for small-screen browsing is mind-numbing.
   • A common hardware platform can make this task easier.

2usually in singular The declared policy of a political party or group.

1. 2.1 An opportunity to voice one's views or initiate action.
   the forum will provide a platform for discussion of communication issues

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A few months later, when the research project was completed, Women Without Borders was officially launched to provide a platform where voices of women could be heard.
   • The congress served as a platform for celebrating the policies of the new French government and its right-wing leaders.
   • He has stayed to have a platform for his views on Europe.
   • Last series, he interviewed the Burmese ambassador to Britain under the guise of ‘giving him a platform to express his views’.
   • This new programme will deal with topical issues and news stories of the day and provide a platform for listeners' views.
   • Well, it's a great opportunity to have a platform on which you can get out the ideas that you think work.
   • Heller has given a platform to many other voices.
   • People, young and old, from across all communities, races and creeds have had a platform to express those views.
   • With Underground Codes, she provides a platform for a national discussion on race and crime in America.
   • This is why it never even occurred to Rudd or Gillard to utilise the leadership contest as a platform to elaborate policy differences and fight to win new adherents.
   • Under Russia's media laws it is prohibited to give terrorists a platform to voice their views.
   • I can't help but feel that I should take advantage of this opportunity of a free platform to say something.
   • ‘My hope is that Checkpoint can give a platform to these other voices, these other perspectives,’ he says.
   • I'm not a particularly political person, and this space, over the years, has never been a platform for my personal views or beliefs.
   • They also provide an employee with an opportunity to clear the air, express opinions about how their own expectations have or have not been met, and provide a platform for them to voice any grievances.
   • And we will give them a platform for their views.
   • It's not just that there are more than 500 sessions - but virtually every session in turn has a range of different views on the platform.
   • Everybody has a view and their own set of interests and the Web provides a valid platform for sharing this voice.
   • I may not like the idea of the woman's views being given a platform with no critique, but that is a valid editorial decision.
   • This has become an important event providing a platform for views and performances.

3A shoe with very thick soles.