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.
No basketball coach in three decades has left a national champion as quickly as Michigan’s Dusty May, who is jumping to the Dallas Mavericks.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 23, 2026
Before this, Irving had begun his project of myth-building with a mischievously fictionalized history of New York published under the name Diedrich Knickerbocker—a pseudonym that lives on with the city’s basketball team.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 19, 2026
"We know basketball is huge in America, obviously not so much in the UK. It was unreal… I might even start following basketball now because of it."
From BBC • Jun. 19, 2026
“Maybe you can’t re-create the basketball court outside, but what could you do? Could you have games or arts or trivia or some interactive something that at least gets kids a real break?”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 18, 2026
Elijah tossed the basketball lightly in the air, caught it, then said, “Hey, nice Jordans!”
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
