(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.