pastime
Americannoun
-
pastimes
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pastime
1480–90; earlier pas ( s ) e tyme, translation of Middle French passe-temps
Explanation
A pastime is any hobby or activity that you do to pass the time. Usually, people enjoy their pastimes. When baseball was more popular, it was called the "national pastime," because so many people enjoyed watching or playing it. Baseball is still a major pastime, as are many other sports. Other pastimes include listening to music, playing music, watching TV, playing video games, playing with your dog, and any kind of hobby. Whenever you're awake and not working, you're probably enjoying a pastime.
Vocabulary lists containing pastime
Baseball: A Lexicon
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Words for the World Series
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This Week in Words: November 11 - 17, 2017
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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:
As it happens, she continued to consider singing a secondary pastime even after her performance in Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” under the direction of Peter Sellars made her famous in operatic circles in 1985.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
“I think there is a lot of attention to how different cultures have taken America’s pastime and created experiences around it that are different than we have here,” Freedman said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 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
Hockney's new passion was landscapes: the traditional pastime of the weekend amateur.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
Laurie’s eyes followed her with pleasure, for she neither romped nor sauntered, but danced with spirit and grace, making the delightsome pastime what it should be.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Backyard bird feeding is one of our country’s most popular pastimes.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026
Bowling was once one of America’s most popular pastimes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
While we have counseled that speculating on earnings reports is gambling, it remains one of the most prevalent pastimes in the stock and options market.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
"We have a massive dependence on social media that has taken us away from more social pastimes," he argues.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2025
Her husband, an Aragonese merchant by whom she had two children, spent half the value of his store on medicines and pastimes in an attempt to alleviate her terror.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
