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  • ping-pong
    ping-pong
    verb (used with object)
    to move back and forth or transfer rapidly from one locale, job, etc., to another; switch.
  • Ping-Pong
    Ping-Pong

ping-pong

1 American  
[ping-pong, -pawng] / ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ, -ˌpɔŋ /

verb (used with object)

  1. to move back and forth or transfer rapidly from one locale, job, etc., to another; switch.

    The patient was ping-ponged from one medical specialist to another.


verb (used without object)

  1. to go back and forth; change rapidly or regularly; shift; bounce.

    For ten years the foreign correspondent ping-ponged between London and Paris.

Ping-Pong 2 American  
[ping-pong, -pawng] / ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ, -ˌpɔŋ /
Trademark.
  1. table tennis.


Ping-Pong British  
/ ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ /

noun

  1. Also called: ping pong.  another name for table tennis

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of ping-pong

First recorded in 1900–05

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.

Lu - the 64-year-old president of the American Changle Association, a Chinese community group - argued he was simply trying to help people renew driver's licenses and facilitate social activities like mahjong and ping pong.

From BBC • May 16, 2026

“He seems to have been called by every honorary title imaginable,” noted one biographer—“the country’s leading novelist, philosopher, educator, designer, agricultural experimenter, architect, industrial management specialist, general and ping pong trainer.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

The canteen, where staff were playing ping pong and pool just 24 hours earlier, was transformed into a nightclub with more than 400 guests.

From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026

Here, Chalamet again fuses his personal drive into his performance, claiming that he spent seven years training to play ping pong like Reisman and unlike Tom Hanks in “Gump,” he’s doing his own stunts.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2025

He then renewed his attention to the "ping pong" game, and Wallingford, aimless for the time and occupied with that tremendous puzzle of the hotel bill, stood by and watched.

From Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford by Chester, George Randolph

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