sport
Americannoun
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sports
plural
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an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
- Synonyms:
- game
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a particular form of this, especially in the out of doors.
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(used with a singular verb) sports, such athletic activities collectively.
Sports is important in my life.
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diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.
- Synonyms:
- entertainment, fun, amusement
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jest; fun; mirth; pleasantry.
What he said in sport was taken seriously.
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mockery; ridicule; derision.
They made sport of him.
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an object of derision; laughingstock.
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something treated lightly or tossed about like a plaything.
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something or someone subject to the whims or vicissitudes of fate, circumstances, etc.
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a sportsman.
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Informal. a person who behaves in a sportsmanlike, fair, or admirable manner; an accommodating person.
He was a sport and took his defeat well.
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Informal. a person who is interested in sports as an occasion for gambling; gambler.
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Informal. a flashy person; one who wears showy clothes, affects smart manners, pursues pleasurable pastimes, or the like; a bon vivant.
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Biology. an organism or part that shows an unusual or singular deviation from the normal or parent type; mutation.
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Obsolete. amorous dalliance.
adjective
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of, relating to, or used in sports or a particular sport.
sport fishing.
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suitable for outdoor or informal wear.
sport clothes.
verb (used without object)
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sports,
present (3rd person singular)
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sported,
past participle, past
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sporting
present participle
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to amuse oneself with some pleasant pastime or recreation.
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to play, frolic, or gambol, as a child or an animal.
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to engage in some open-air or athletic pastime or sport.
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to trifle or treat lightly.
to sport with another's emotions.
- Synonyms:
- toy
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to mock, scoff, or tease.
to sport at suburban life.
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Biology. mutate.
verb (used with object)
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sports,
present (3rd person singular)
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sported,
past participle, past
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sporting
present participle
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to pass (time) in amusement or sport.
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to spend or squander lightly or recklessly (often followed byaway ).
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Informal. to wear, display, carry, etc., especially with ostentation.
Celebs are frequently seen sporting a wide array of designer handbags.
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Archaic. to amuse (especially oneself ).
idioms
noun
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an individual or group activity pursued for exercise or pleasure, often involving the testing of physical capabilities and taking the form of a competitive game such as football, tennis, etc
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such activities considered collectively
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any particular pastime indulged in for pleasure
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the pleasure derived from a pastime, esp hunting, shooting, or fishing
we had good sport today
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playful or good-humoured joking
to say a thing in sport
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derisive mockery or the object of such mockery
to make sport of someone
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someone or something that is controlled by external influences
the sport of fate
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informal a person who reacts cheerfully in the face of adversity, esp a good loser
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informal a person noted for being scrupulously fair and abiding by the rules of a game
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informal a person who leads a merry existence, esp a gambler
he's a bit of a sport
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informal a form of address used esp between males
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biology
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an animal or plant that differs conspicuously in one or more aspects from other organisms of the same species, usually because of a mutation
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an anomalous characteristic of such an organism
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verb
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informal (tr) to wear or display in an ostentatious or proud manner
she was sporting a new hat
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(intr) to skip about or frolic happily
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to amuse (oneself), esp in outdoor physical recreation
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to dally or trifle (with)
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rare to squander (time or money)
sporting one's life away
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archaic to make fun (of)
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(intr) biology to produce or undergo a mutation
Synonym Usage
See play .
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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sporternoun
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sportfulnessnoun
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outsportverb (used with object)
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sportfuladjective
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sportlessadjective
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unsportedadjective
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unsportfuladjective
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sportfullyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sportsimple
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sportssimple
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have sportedperfect
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has sportedperfect
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am sportingprogressive
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are sportingprogressive
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is sportingprogressive
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have been sportingperfect progressive
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has been sportingperfect progressive
Past
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sportedsimple
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had sportedperfect
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was sportingprogressive
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were sportingprogressive
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had been sportingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sport
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; aphetic variant of disport
Explanation
Sport has many definitions, the most familiar of which is a game involving physical exertion — think tennis or hockey. Randomly, sport can also mean to wear, as in, "he looked sharp sporting a yellow sport coat." Most of the definitions of sport involve the idea of fun, or of something being fair. Hopefully organized sports are both. A sporting chance means a player in a game has a fair chance of winning. A good sport is someone who plays fair, and wins and loses graciously. If you torture flies for sport, you do it for fun, and that's just wrong. If you make sport of your little sister's stutter, you make fun of it, and that's even worse.
Vocabulary lists containing sport
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:
This is a sport that still has its playoffs entangled with a zombie rotation of bowl games.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Tickets to events featuring him are often sold out, applications to darting academies are reported to be at an all-time high and the Briton has transcended the sport.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
This haywire sport has a rich tradition of pay-for-play cupcakes—small time programs awarded a check for three hours of missing tackles against a large-conference behemoth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
“Baseball is gnarly. It’s repetitive. It’s a sport that’s inherently, at times, very boring,” Maske said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
He sips coffee from his cup and wipes some brown droplets out of his mustache with the sleeve of his sport coat.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
As audiences engage across sports, entertainment, social platforms, live events and professional communities, brands must quickly decide where to show up—and how to participate genuinely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Should I see these mega programs feasting on easy prey, passing the ball in the fourth quarter like Oregon did, and think that’s the way big time sports should be?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
After co-founding the sports entertainment production company Buzz16 in 2016, Neville launched YouTube platform 'The Overlap' in 2021.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
The group has since been taken on by adventure sports centre All Aboard Watersports.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
Jamal Mamoo is obsessed with sports scores and records and is always talking about who’s the best.
From "Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun" by Hena Khan
Some say this bearding trend began with the 1980s television series “Miami Vice,” wherein the actor Don Johnson sported a 5-o’clock shadow that was much commented on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Yet he noted that some investors have been disappointed by the level of growth sported by ServiceNow and other enterprise software companies, especially relative to the “hockey-stick growth” of other companies in the AI ecosystem.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
Jeff Kent sported a mustache throughout his career even though some folks teased him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
A black leather jacket sported by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sold for $960,000 at a New York auction on Friday, 16 times higher than the estimated value of $60,000, according to Sotheby's.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Some of them, particularly those who rose to the top, were flashy dressers like Al Capone, who sported a fifty-thousand-dollar ring and a diamond-studded belt buckle.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
On a recent Saturday, the family went out to the playground in their neighborhood, with Larix sporting his watch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
He then insists that the FFE plan "did not involve relinquishing Fifa's control or authority over sporting decisions. Obviously!"
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
Avyla said that with these major sporting events coming through town she’s worried the cost of living will continue to rise as her work gets busier and busier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
Dozens of people from the group fighting for better worker protections during major sporting events were loudly blowing horns, banging drums and chanting, “Sí se puede,” directly across from Exposition Park’s newest museum.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
The radio report is confusing—cops say Tariq had on a red bandanna, but T wasn't sporting no colors yesterday.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
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.
