inning
Americannoun
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Baseball. a division of a game during which each team has an opportunity to score until three outs have been made against it.
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a similar opportunity to score in certain other games, as horseshoes.
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an opportunity for activity; a turn.
Now the opposition will have its inning.
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(used with a singular verb) innings,
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Cricket. a unit of play in which each team has a turn at bat, the turn of a team ending after ten players are put out or when the team declares.
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land reclaimed, especially from the sea.
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the act of reclaiming marshy or flooded land.
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enclosure, as of wasteland.
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the gathering in of crops.
noun
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baseball a division of the game consisting of a turn at bat and a turn in the field for each side
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archaic the reclamation of land from the sea
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of inning
before 900; Middle English inninge, Old English innung a getting in, equivalent to inn ( ian ) to go in + -ung -ing 1
Explanation
Most baseball games are divided into nine innings. Each inning gives both teams a chance to be up at bat until they get three strikes. Cricket was the first sport to mark periods in innings, or "a team's turn in action during a game," emphasis on the in. While a cricket match can have four innings, the majority of baseball games have nine (though in the case of a tie, an unlimited number of extra innings can be added at the end of a game). At the start of each new inning (and half-inning), the teams switch places and the umpire yells, "Play ball!"
Vocabulary lists containing inning
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:
That’s where it was during the seventh inning stretch, when at least 15 members of the ground crew began their pursuit of the furry fan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
In their view, not every reliever is cut out for the tightrope of the ninth inning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
As a result, relievers are rarely locked into the same inning every game.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
The Dodgers’ three-up, three-down second inning ended when Teoscar Hernández tried to stretch a single into a double and ran into an out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
So it was the bottom of the third inning by the time that Mrs. Baker and I reached our box seats, which were on the first-base line, right next to the Yankee dugout.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
That’s especially true for small-market clubs, who have determined that allocating a large portion of their payroll to someone who will throw 65 innings all season isn’t necessarily a smart use of their budget.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
The men's Test record for catches by a keeper in an innings is seven.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Jos Buttler scores 90 off 50 balls, in an innings that included five sixes, as he helps his Manchester Super Giants side reach 187-5 against Birmingham Phoenix in the men's Hundred.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
The right-hander held the Mets to just one run, coming off a single from Bo Bichette, over six innings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
The game went into extra innings, and then extra-extra innings.
From "The Missing Mitt (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #2)" by Franklin W. Dixon
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.
