DictionaryAI

basketball

BAS-kit-bawl/ˈbæs.kɪt.bɔl/UKBAHS-kit-bawl/ˈbɑːs.kɪt.bɔːl/

Pluralbasketballs (some meanings)

Verbbasketballs, basketballing, basketballed

4 meanings of basketball

Practice

  1. 1
    court gamenoununcountable
    A team sport in which two opposing teams of five players try to put a ball through an elevated hoop.

    She earned a college scholarship by playing basketball.

    Professional basketball draws enormous television audiences each season.

    UsageNo article for the game: you play basketball (not incorrect: play the basketball); a basketball is the ball.

    Similarhoops, b-ball

  2. 2
    ballnouncountable
    The inflated, round ball used to play the sport of basketball.

    The referee tossed the basketball up for the opening tip-off.

    A worn basketball had lost most of its grip by season's end.

  3. 3
    verbcolloquialintransitive
    To play the sport of basketball.
    by high school he was basketballing with the best of an all-Negro league
    1968, Tom Tiede, Coward

    UsageMuch less common than play basketball, which is the safer choice in careful writing.

    Note

    The noun turned verb with no change of form, and it inflects regularly: basketballing, basketballed. You basketball with someone or somewhere, as when Tom Tiede's Coward (1968) has a player basketballing with the best of a league.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    toss (like shooting)verbcolloquialtransitive
    To toss an object with the same arcing motion used when shooting a ball at a hoop.
    He took a sip from a paper coffee-cup , crumpled it up and basketballed it into a small rubbish bin about five feet from him.
    1994, Jeff Probst, Bachelor Butterflies

    UsageUsually names the thing thrown and where it lands: basketball a can into a bin.

    Similarlob, toss, shoot

    Note

    Here the game supplies a motion rather than an activity, and the verb needs an object: you basketball a paper cup, a can or a wadded note into a bin. Jeff Probst's Bachelor Butterflies (1994) has a crumpled coffee cup basketballed into a rubbish bin five feet away. Unlike the intransitive "play" verb, it says nothing about the sport itself. It names only the arcing toss.

    Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Jeff Probst wrote Bachelor Butterflies, published in 1994. societyofauthors.org
    • The book describes a crumpled coffee cup being basketballed into a rubbish bin approximately five feet away. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of basketball apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

A compound formed from basket and ball.

Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 1 fact