These words refer to things designed or used for amusement. Plaything serves as a generic term covering the whole range of objects so used; most typically it appears in the plural to indicate objects pertaining to children’s recreation: insisting that he put all his playthings away each night before bedtime. In the singular, plaything may function more specifically to suggest the ephemeral nature or triviality of an object; these implications come to the fore especially when the word is used in reference to adults. Here, plaything may indicate an object of idle amusement – or even a person who is subject to someone else’s whims or serves as a source of merely sexual gratification: executives who can afford expensive sets of golf clubs and other idle playthings ; treating his mistress as a plaything that need not be taken seriously.

Toy is more restricted in reference to the playthings of a child. While this word can also be generic in its inclusiveness, it may suggest, particularly in the singular, a small but more complicated structure that often has moving parts and involves the child in a passive response: a toy that is wound up and then runs across the floor with a comical, jerking movement. In comparison, plaything may suggest something that is improvised or used merely as the equipment with which to carry on some more comprehensive play activity.

Game at its most inclusive can refer to play in which no toys or playthings are used whatever. In reference to objects, however, the word can refer to the set of equipment necessary to a specific kind of play; in this sense, game might refer to a group of objects such as a playing board, dice, packs of cards, and counters: not sure whether Monopoly, chess or draughts would be the best game to give him as a gift. Obviously the word is not restricted to the recreation of children: roulette and other games of chance. Recently, the word has become a fad word to refer pejoratively to typical behaviour patterns that people mechanically act out without thinking: the invidious game of keeping up with the Joneses; Stop playing your he-man games with me. Novelty is the one word here that need not primarily suggest an amusement for children. The word can in fact refer to playthings designed especially for adults, in which case it may be apologetically euphemistic, as though adults might be embarrassed to think of recreational devices as being simply adult toys . Usually the word suggests an item that facilitates some sort of cheating or trick, some practical joke, or something that is trivial or off-colour: novelties such as dribble glasses, magic tricks, false ears and exploding cigars.