basketball
Americannoun
-
basketballs
plural
noun
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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
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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:
Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was suspended without pay for six months for “his involvement with the impermissible endorsement arrangements and for approving impermissible expenses incurred by Mr. Leonard and his family.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
D’Amelio most recently served as chief innovation officer for the New York Liberty, where he worked across basketball operations, health and performance, analytics and applied sciences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
All seven Australians in the NFL converted from rugby, basketball or Australian rules football, and Australia has a huge pool of similar athletes with transferable skills.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
The sprawling property has everything from standard rooms to stand-alone lake houses, plus indoor and outdoor pools, lawn games, basketball and pickleball courts.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
I’m playing a lot of basketball and trying out for the team.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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
A couple of the pumpkins are the size of basketballs, with 10 or more smaller ones trying to catch up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 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
I was in the gym, shooting basketballs every day, working on my game.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2025
When I finally got into the dance room with the other guys, we turned up the music and did our best to drown out the reverberations of the many basketballs hitting the floor.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
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.
