Place is where something or someone is located. Your place might be your seat in the classroom, your spot at the dinner table, or your position in line at recess. A place can be as small as a single chair or as large as an entire country.

The word works in many ways. You might place a book on a shelf, meaning you put it there carefully. In a race, if you place third, you finish in third position. When you try to remember where you've seen someone before, you're trying to place them in your memory.

Place also means a particular location with its own character or purpose. The library is a place for reading and studying. Your hometown is the place where you grew up. Sometimes people talk about knowing your place, meaning understanding what’s expected of you in a particular situation, like knowing you're supposed to be quiet during a school assembly.

In math, place value refers to the position of a digit in a number: in 345, the 3 is in the hundreds place. And when something happens, you might describe it as taking place, like when the science fair takes place in the gymnasium.