A plate or wall plate is a horizontal, structural, load-bearing member in wooden building framing.

Timber framing

A plate in timber framing is "A piece of Timber upon which some considerable weight is framed...Hence Ground-Plate...Window-plate [obsolete]..." etc. Also called a wall plate, raising plate, or top plate, An exception to the use of the term plate for a large, load-bearing timber in a wall is the bressummer,

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