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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

  table tennis.

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.

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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.

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Ping-Pong British  

/ ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of ping-pong

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ping-pong Ping-Pong

Ace integrates nine synchronized cameras and three vision systems to track the spinning plastic ping-pong ball.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill is currently stuck in parliamentary "ping-pong", where legislation moves between the Commons and Lords until agreement is reached on its final wording.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026

The dragging of ship anchors, a main way cables get taken out, can damage even armored cables, which are wrapped in steel wire but still roughly the diameter of a ping-pong ball.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026

“Most engineers want to do the 1:00 to 3:45 with a ping-pong break and an hour lunch. That’s the way the Valley worked,” McCardel said.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 4, 2026

We move on to ping-pong and score based on who can hit the most surfaces around the room with a single shot.

From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden

He purchased a Ping-Pong table as his first piece of furniture.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2024

After concluding Ping-Pong night, Joe crashed on the couch in his living room, then woke for a fishing trip on the Sol Duc River outside of Forks — 160 miles away.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2023

The favorite spot among players at the Ryder Cup is their team room, with its food and drinks, plenty of laughter, motivational moments and for the Americans, epic tales of Ping-Pong.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 27, 2023

From the control room next door, the animals show up as dots on the computer monitors, looking like remote-control Ping-Pong balls zinging around the room and occasionally coming to rest in odd corners.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 16, 2023

There was even a white Ping-Pong table in the living room!

From "Auggie & Me" by R. J. Palacio