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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
Washington state in 2024 launched a pilot program in which basketball officials were equipped with body cameras to record negative interactions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Would you pay $7,000 for a chair on which Taylor Swift sat in a basketball arena — for an NBA playoff game, not for her wedding?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Djokovic probably could have wandered into Taylor Swift’s basketball court wedding and nobody would have flinched.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
You wouldn't know the hub was here because the outdoor space for basketball, chess and boxing is blocked off by high steel fencing.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
He also for some reason wears sweat bands on his wrists like he’s a ’70s basketball player or something.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
Specs can digitize a chess board, provide AR-guided training for shooting basketballs and even highlight the coolant reservoir under the hood of a car, according to videos and photos online.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
Other sports have made accommodations for female body types, such as lower sprint hurdles in athletics or lighter and smaller basketballs.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
She has seen the video evidence of the two of them, both still in kindergarten, launching basketballs over their heads at the backboard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2025
There I was, dribbling basketballs like a Globetrotter, diving through inter-dimensional portals, riding on the back of a galloping dinosaur in an explosive train heist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
So I tell her I’m sorry, it won’t happen again, then head off to my next class.Gym class is supposed to be about balls: volleyballs, basketballs, softballs, soccer balls—sometimes sit-ups and always sweat.
From "The Crossover" by Kwame Alexander
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.
