plat

Most often, a plat is a map or plan that shows how land is divided. You may see the word in property records, land surveys, or building work, where it marks boundaries, streets, and lots. In older writing, it can also mean a small piece of land itself.

There is also an old figurative sense where plat means a plot or scheme, but that use is rare now. Today, if you come across the word, it is much more likely to be talking about land records than a secret plan.

The heart of plat is land and the way land is marked out on paper. In its main and most useful sense, a plat is a map, drawing, or plan that shows the boundaries and divisions of a piece of land. It appears in surveys, legal records, and development documents, where it helps show lots, roads, and property lines clearly.

From there, the word also came to mean the piece of land shown on that map. This sense turns up more in older or literary writing, where a plat may be a small plot of ground, such as a garden area or a marked section of land. That meaning still makes sense, but it is much less common than the map sense.

There is also an older figurative use in which plat means a plot, plan, or scheme. You are most likely to meet that meaning in historical texts rather than modern speech. So if you see plat today, the safest guess is usually a land-survey map, not a secret plan.