basketball
Americannoun
noun
-
a game played by two opposing teams of five men (or six women) each, usually on an indoor court. Points are scored by throwing the ball through an elevated horizontal metal hoop
-
the inflated ball used in this game
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of basketball
Explanation
Basketball is a team sport in which players work together to bounce a ball down the length of a court and throw it through a hoop. Some college basketball games are hugely popular and very competitive. In basketball, two teams of five players collaborate to score points by successfully throwing the ball — also called a basketball — through the nets that hang from hoops at either end of the court. The game was invented in 1891, and the word basketball first appeared in print the next year, from basket and ball.
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:
A former community organizer, he used youthful slang and pop culture references with the same ease he played pick-up basketball games.
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
Rules have been changed in baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey to allow for more minority investments in the past decade, causing team values to skyrocket.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
A transcript from an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by former JSerra girls’ basketball coach Chyanne Butler indicates the school could be facing a Southern Section investigation for CIF rules violations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
These are taking market share from Nike’s retro basketball shoes, which dominated the lifestyle-sneaker market earlier in the 2020s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
I hop in Ray’s truck, the basketball on the seat between us.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
Specs can digitize a chess board, provide AR-guided training for shooting basketballs and even highlight the coolant reservoir under the hood of a car, according to videos and photos online.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
There I was, dribbling basketballs like a Globetrotter, diving through inter-dimensional portals, riding on the back of a galloping dinosaur in an explosive train heist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
His peers could dunk basketballs and had mustaches; he was in eighth grade but had barely hit puberty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2024
The duke joined the kids in dribbling basketballs, even shooting one in the hoop, before they all posed for a photo.
From BBC ● May 12, 2024
They carried chess sets, basketballs, Vietnamese-English dictionaries, insignia of rank, Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts, plastic cards imprinted with the Code of Conduct.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
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.
