Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

table tennis

American  

noun

  1. a game resembling tennis, played on a table with small paddles and a hollow celluloid or plastic ball.


table tennis British  

noun

  1. a miniature form of tennis played on a table with small bats and a light hollow ball

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of table tennis

First recorded in 1900–05

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 small sideways displacement is the optical equivalent of the Magnus effect that makes a spinning table tennis ball curve through the air.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026

And the week the table tennis tournament came to town - which by a stroke of bad luck was the one in which the jury finally retired - turned the accommodation drought into a famine.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

A secret visit by national security adviser Henry Kissinger the year before laid the groundwork for the presidential trip, alongside reciprocal visits of table tennis teams termed "ping-pong diplomacy".

From Barron's ● May 15, 2026

Sabbir reads manuals on the theory of navigation, and Islamic texts—or plays table tennis with his crew.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026

Did Iranians say Ping-Pong, or did they say table tennis?

From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember new words for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com