sport

American  

[spawrt] / spɔrt /

noun

1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

   Synonyms:

   game

2. a particular form of this, especially in the out of doors.

3. (used with a singular verb) sports, such athletic activities collectively.

   Sports is important in my life.

4. diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.

   Synonyms:

   entertainment, fun, amusement

5. jest; fun; mirth; pleasantry.

   What he said in sport was taken seriously.

6. mockery; ridicule; derision.

   They made sport of him.

7. an object of derision; laughingstock.

8. something treated lightly or tossed about like a plaything.

9. something or someone subject to the whims or vicissitudes of fate, circumstances, etc.

10. a sportsman.

11. Informal. a person who behaves in a sportsmanlike, fair, or admirable manner; an accommodating person.

    He was a sport and took his defeat well.

12. Informal. a person who is interested in sports as an occasion for gambling; gambler.

13. Informal. a flashy person; one who wears showy clothes, affects smart manners, pursues pleasurable pastimes, or the like; a bon vivant.

14. Biology. an organism or part that shows an unusual or singular deviation from the normal or parent type; mutation.

15. Obsolete. amorous dalliance.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or used in sports or a particular sport.

   sport fishing.

2. suitable for outdoor or informal wear.

   sport clothes.

verb (used without object)

1. to amuse oneself with some pleasant pastime or recreation.

2. to play, frolic, or gambol, as a child or an animal.

   Synonyms:

   caper, romp

3. to engage in some open-air or athletic pastime or sport.

4. to trifle or treat lightly.

   to sport with another's emotions.

   Synonyms:

   toy

5. to mock, scoff, or tease.

   to sport at suburban life.

6. Biology. mutate.

verb (used with object)

1. to pass (time) in amusement or sport.

2. to spend or squander lightly or recklessly (often followed byaway ).

3. Informal. to wear, display, carry, etc., especially with ostentation.

   Celebs are frequently seen sporting a wide array of designer handbags.

4. Archaic. to amuse (especially oneself ).

idioms

1. sport one's oak. oak.

sport British  

/ spɔːt /

noun

1. an individual or group activity pursued for exercise or pleasure, often involving the testing of physical capabilities and taking the form of a competitive game such as football, tennis, etc

2. such activities considered collectively

3. any particular pastime indulged in for pleasure

4. the pleasure derived from a pastime, esp hunting, shooting, or fishing

   we had good sport today

5. playful or good-humoured joking

   to say a thing in sport

6. derisive mockery or the object of such mockery

   to make sport of someone

7. someone or something that is controlled by external influences

   the sport of fate

8. informal a person who reacts cheerfully in the face of adversity, esp a good loser

9. informal a person noted for being scrupulously fair and abiding by the rules of a game

10. informal a person who leads a merry existence, esp a gambler

    he's a bit of a sport

11. informal a form of address used esp between males

12. biology

    1. an animal or plant that differs conspicuously in one or more aspects from other organisms of the same species, usually because of a mutation

    2. an anomalous characteristic of such an organism

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verb

1. informal (tr) to wear or display in an ostentatious or proud manner

   she was sporting a new hat

2. (intr) to skip about or frolic happily

3. to amuse (oneself), esp in outdoor physical recreation

4. to dally or trifle (with)

5. rare to squander (time or money)

   sporting one's life away

6. archaic to make fun (of)

7. (intr) biology to produce or undergo a mutation

Related Words

See play .

Other Word Forms

• outsport verb (used with object)
• sporter noun
• sportful adjective
• sportfully adverb
• sportfulness noun
• sportless adjective
• unsported adjective
• unsportful adjective

Etymology

Origin of sport

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; aphetic variant of disport

Explanation

Sport has many definitions, the most familiar of which is a game involving physical exertion — think tennis or hockey. Randomly, sport can also mean to wear, as in, "he looked sharp sporting a yellow sport coat." Most of the definitions of sport involve the idea of fun, or of something being fair. Hopefully organized sports are both. A sporting chance means a player in a game has a fair chance of winning. A good sport is someone who plays fair, and wins and loses graciously. If you torture flies for sport, you do it for fun, and that's just wrong. If you make sport of your little sister's stutter, you make fun of it, and that's even worse.

Example Sentences

Pretty much every sport is adding partners as behemoths like Amazon and Netflix continue to throw cash at rights.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

He said the 13-year-old was a "fun, loving, young footballer" who "loved" the sport.

From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026

After all, golf, by its nature, is a conservative sport.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

“It’s the same as our sport: if you do a mistake, you cannot change it,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

I’ve never been good at the catching part of the sport, but I’ve always been great at the tackling-and-falling part.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

Related Words

• athletics
• fun
• game
• pastime