team
Americannoun
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teams
plural
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a number of persons forming one of the sides in a game or contest.
a football team.
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a number of persons associated in some joint action.
a team of advisers.
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two or more horses, oxen, or other animals harnessed together to draw a vehicle, plow, or the like.
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one or more draft animals together with the harness and vehicle drawn.
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a family of young animals, especially ducks or pigs.
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Obsolete. offspring or progeny; lineage or stock.
verb (used with object)
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teams,
present (3rd person singular)
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teamed,
past participle, past
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teaming
present participle
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to join together in a team.
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Chiefly Northern U.S. Older Use. to convey or transport by means of a team; haul.
verb (used without object)
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teams,
present (3rd person singular)
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teamed,
past participle, past
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teaming
present participle
adjective
noun
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a group of people organized to work together
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a group of players forming one of the sides in a sporting contest
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two or more animals working together to pull a vehicle or agricultural implement
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such animals and the vehicle
the coachman riding his team
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dialect a flock, herd, or brood
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obsolete ancestry
verb
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to make or cause to make a team
he teamed George with Robert
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(tr) to drag or transport in or by a team
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(intr) to drive a team
Grammar
See collective noun.
Usage
What does team mean? A team is a group of people who work together in a joint action, as in Our Academic Decathlon team was made up of some of the smartest kids in our school. A team is also a group of people on one side of a contest or game, such as a soccer team or a trivia team. A team is also two or more draft animals, such as horses, harnessed together to pull something, like a plow or a cart. To team up is to form a group to work together, as in Miles and Lex teamed up to study for the big science test next month. Example: My team is working hard on these software solutions for streaming platforms.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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teamsimple
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teamssimple
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have teamedperfect
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has teamedperfect
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am teamingprogressive
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are teamingprogressive
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is teamingprogressive
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have been teamingperfect progressive
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has been teamingperfect progressive
Past
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teamedsimple
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had teamedperfect
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was teamingprogressive
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were teamingprogressive
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had been teamingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of team
First recorded before 900; Middle English teme (noun), Old English tēam “child-bearing, brood, offspring, set of draft beasts”; cognate with Dutch toom “bridle, reins,” German Zaum, Old Norse taumr
Explanation
If you're part of a frisbee team, you're part of a group of people who cooperate to throw a plastic disc around. It's neat. Two or more of people working together on a single task can be called a team, whether that's an informal team or a professional one. The two horses that pull your carriage are a team, and the guys you play soccer with on Saturday mornings are also a team. Team can also be a verb, meaning "to join forces." If you want to beautify your town, team up with local people to paint a mural for the community.
Vocabulary lists containing team
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:
Besides the main storyline and a dull, time-padding smuggling operation to uncover, there’s little to do for the rest of the Broken Lizard team: Paul Soter, Eric Stolhanske and Steve Emme.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
"It's massive for the area because they have never seen this team play in the competition."
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
His current defense team has requested a mental health evaluation.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
“How do you tell the team that, ‘Hey, what we did before is not relevant anymore.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
In that wild place they told me so that I would understand that they were the team, they were all of it, and if I ignored them or treated them wrong I would know it.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
A wall of USC players drafted by NFL teams at the Bloom Football Performance Center.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
He told employees he was laying off the sales, marketing and customer-success teams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
The project, funded with approximately $4.88 million, includes the reconstruction of training pitches, and the construction of a modern accommodation complex for Nigeria's national teams.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
After initially signing with the Angels organization as a teenage international free agent in 2013, Yan eventually spent several years out of affiliated baseball, playing for semipro and amateur teams while also working odd jobs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
The top ten came from around the world and included teams from China, India, South Africa, France, and the United States.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
Cosmetics brand Glamlite teamed up with Pepsi for its first foray into body care, turning the cola’s flavors into a Wild Cherry body wash and a Vanilla Slushie scrub.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
In Germany, defence group Rheinmetall has teamed up with Boeing to integrate the MQ-28 into the German Air Force, with the capability expected to be available by 2029.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Perennially troubled Commerzbank almost teamed up in 2019 with its larger rival, Deutsche Bank, but potential job cuts and branch closures were sticking points.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
In the build-up to this year's Wimbledon, she beat world number two Elena Rybakina and eighth-ranked Elina Svitolina in Berlin, and also teamed up with Venus Williams in doubles.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
He felt the stiff, arched withers of two German police dogs who ran together and often teamed to fight and get licked by the Gray.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
The idea of teaming up with Garrett turned out to be so tantalizing that it tempted one of the NFL’s all-time great pass rushers to mull coming out of retirement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Upon retiring in 1992, Smith Jr. moved behind a microphone, teaming with Scott Kaplan on a popular radio show on the Mighty 1090, a station that went off the air in 2019.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
These systems, Kamakoti says, rely on "red teaming" - teams that constantly probe systems for weaknesses - and "air-gapped" networks physically isolated from the internet.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
And in a sign of how important this race is, CNN is teaming up with a Maine paper, the Bangor Daily News, to host another debate next week.
From Slate ● Jul. 16, 2026
She spent hours a day, sometimes all day, playing shooting games on the Xbox, either against her husband, or teaming up with him against other people they’d meet online.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
