Words about words

You play when you do something just for the fun of it. The child in the picture is playing.

Playful means full of fun and not too serious. You may see a playful dog, child, or cat chasing a toy.

The word can also describe words or jokes that are light and friendly.

Ploughed is the past tense of plough.

You pluck something by pulling it off at the growing point. People commonly pluck out hairs from their eyebrows, pluck fruit from a tree or vine, or most commonly pluck the feathers from a bird like a chicken to prepare it for cooking. The chicken in the picture has been plucked everywhere except its wings.
Plucking can also describe a short, sharp way of playing an instrument like a guitar, or even be used as another word for courage, as in "he has a lot of pluck".

Plump means a little fat, but in a good way.

People often describe baby animals as plump.

Something is pointless if there is no reason for it to exist. A task is pointless if there is no reason to complete it.
The gate in the picture is pointless because you can just walk around it.

Something is poisonous if it contains poison. Poison can make you very sick, or kill you. Poison needs to get inside you somehow to be dangerous. Poisonous mushrooms and berries are usually eaten, and poisonous insects and snakes inject poison when they bite you. The frog in the picture will poison anything that eats it, and people use the poison from the frog to put on arrows and darts to help them hunt.

You polish something to change it from rough and dull to smooth and shiny. You usually polish things with a soft cloth or brush and some polishing compound. If you are polishing something very large, you might use a mechanical device to polish with.

Pollution is something that is introduced into an environment that has a bad effect on that environment. Pollution can be industrial wastes, smoke, fumes, car exhaust, rubbish, excess light or heat.

A pop is a short, explosive sound, like a cork makes as it suddenly comes out of a bottle.