inning
Americannoun
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innings
plural
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Baseball. a division of a game during which each team has an opportunity to score until three outs have been made against it.
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a similar opportunity to score in certain other games, as horseshoes.
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an opportunity for activity; a turn.
Now the opposition will have its inning.
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(used with a singular verb) innings,
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Cricket. a unit of play in which each team has a turn at bat, the turn of a team ending after ten players are put out or when the team declares.
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land reclaimed, especially from the sea.
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the act of reclaiming marshy or flooded land.
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enclosure, as of wasteland.
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the gathering in of crops.
noun
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baseball a division of the game consisting of a turn at bat and a turn in the field for each side
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archaic the reclamation of land from the sea
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of inning
before 900; Middle English inninge, Old English innung a getting in, equivalent to inn ( ian ) to go in + -ung -ing 1
Explanation
Most baseball games are divided into nine innings. Each inning gives both teams a chance to be up at bat until they get three strikes. Cricket was the first sport to mark periods in innings, or "a team's turn in action during a game," emphasis on the in. While a cricket match can have four innings, the majority of baseball games have nine (though in the case of a tie, an unlimited number of extra innings can be added at the end of a game). At the start of each new inning (and half-inning), the teams switch places and the umpire yells, "Play ball!"
Vocabulary lists containing inning
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:
In that 35-pitch first inning, Glasnow threw the kitchen sink at the Braves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Second inning, Blake Snell gives up a one-out single to Spencer Horowitz, who advances to second on a passed ball, but Snell strands him with a strikeout of Billy Cook.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Third inning, Bryan Reynolds draws a two-out walk, but Snell strands him with a flyout to left by Brandon Lowe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
He had the winning hit Saturday, a two-run single in the fifth inning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
No one else struck out the rest of the inning.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
Tongue was part of a four-pronged pace attack that led England to an innings victory over Pakistan in the first Test at Headingley.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The three starters combined to allow the Pirates just five runs in 19 innings with 26 strikeouts and five walks, and how good is that going to look in October?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Witness Snell’s six shutout innings against the Pirates on Sunday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
"A lot of things went right these couple days and a lot of things went wrong last week," said Cummins, 33, who took 3-10 in the second innings.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
If it had gone into extra innings, Shirley’s heart would have stopped.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
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.
