ballpark
Americannoun
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ballparks
plural
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a tract of land where ball games, especially baseball, are played.
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a baseball stadium.
adjective
idioms
noun
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a stadium used for baseball games
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informal
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approximate range
in the right ballpark
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( as modifier )
a ballpark figure
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informal a situation; state of affairs
it's a whole new ballpark for him
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ballpark
Explanation
A ballpark is the area where baseball is played. When you go to the ballpark, you can sit in the stands, eat a hot dog, and cheer for your favorite team. Ballpark is an American word from the late 1800s, originally a shortened form of baseball park. The ballpark is familiar to baseball fans, their equivalent of a football stadium or a tennis court. Colloquially, you can be "in the ballpark" when you're close or within a certain range: "I'm just guessing how much that car costs, but I bet I'm in the ballpark."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The companies haven’t said how much, but based on comparable therapies, the full treatment could cost somewhere in the ballpark of $300,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
Novig is entering into a multi-year deal that would see its branding integrated across the Mets’ ecosystem in the ballpark, on broadcast and through other digital and social activations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Does he believe that kind of fan experience would translate to an American ballpark?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
That’s in the same ballpark as the reading of the consumer-price index two weeks ago.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
By June we had hot nights, and outside at the ballpark was the place to be.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
That success, and the money that nourishes it, has battalions of fans beyond Los Angeles all but marching outside ballparks with picket signs reading “SALARY CAP NOW.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026
Sections packed with hundreds of rowdy, chanting, bare-chested fans have suddenly appeared at ballparks from St. Petersburg to Seattle, injecting a jolt of life into America’s famously hidebound pastime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Some are impractical, such as forcing teams to push the fences back in their ballparks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
Although there has been an uptick in recent years, attendance began declining at ballparks around the country in the late 2000s.
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2025
Outside the ballparks, America was in the midst of a massive and uncertain shift.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
