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
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.
I have periodically had the same “problem” with NFL, college football, and college basketball games.
From Slate • Jun. 10, 2026
A recent study by the Economist showed that 10% of Americans now rank soccer as their favorite sport, making it the third most popular behind football and basketball and narrowly edging out America’s pastime, baseball.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
Donald Trump has been booed at a basketball match in New York as he became the first sitting US president to attend the NBA Finals.
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
Compare it with basketball: About three-quarters of the WNBA’s current players have never even lived in a world without an established professional women’s basketball league in America.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
“Later, when I started playing basketball, same thing happened. I practiced and I got better. So that’s my tip. Remember the piccolo,” he says as we pull up to the park.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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.
