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 game where two sides of five players try to throw a ball through a high hoop.

    Like soccer, but you score by throwing a ball through a ring instead of kicking it into a net.

    We play basketball every weekend at the local park.

    Basketball keeps thousands of students active after school.

    UsageSay play basketball, with no "a" or "the" before it. A basketball is the ball.

    Similarhoops, b-ball

  2. 2
    ballnouncountable
    The large, round ball that players bounce and throw in the game of basketball.

    About the size of a big melon, and made to bounce high.

    He dribbled the basketball down the court.

    She pumped air into the flat basketball before practice.

  3. 3
    verbcolloquialintransitive
    To take part in a game of basketball.
    by high school he was basketballing with the best of an all-Negro league
    1968, Tom Tiede, Coward

    UsageMost people say play basketball instead, especially in careful writing.

    Note

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    toss (like shooting)verbcolloquialtransitive
    To throw something the way a player shoots 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

    UsageSay what you throw and where: basketball a paper cup into the trash.

    Similarlob, toss, shoot

    Note

Practice

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Origin

It comes from the words "basket" and "ball" joined together.

Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 1 fact