1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Platform

PLATFORM (Fr. plateforme, i.e. ground plan), a word now generally confined to a raised flat structure or stage, temporary or permanent, erected in a building or in the open air, from which speeches, addresses, lectures, &c., can be delivered at a public or other meeting. Similar structures of wood, brick or stone, are used in railway stations at such a level above the rails as to enable passengers to have easy access to the carriages, and in fortification the word is used of the raised level surface on which guns are mounted. The earlier uses of the word, such as for a plane geometrical figure, the ground plan of a building, and figuratively, for a plan, design, scheme, &c., are now obsolete. In a figurative sense the term is applied to a common basis on which members of a political party may agree, and especially in the United States to the declaration made by a party at a national or state convention.