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:
Johnson lamented what he called poor officiating after the game but also told his team that the errors needed to be cleaned up by next week’s playoff opener.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
John Millsap is a reporting intern and member of the summer 2026 newsroom intern class at The Wall Street Journal, where he works with the investigations team.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
The Stallions’ coach said he always tells the team: “When that ball snaps, it is seven seconds of everything you’ve got.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
When James and Kenny were tied in a vote for who was a traitor, Bash persuaded Romesh to banish Kenny instead of James - thereby securing victory for team faithful.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
On a river in Alaska while training I once saw a place where a whirlpool had frozen into a cone, open at the bottom like a beautiful trap waiting to suck the whole team down.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
It’s unclear, but teams are readying themselves to jump into action whenever the market does move.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
With the tournament organisers planning travel itineraries for the teams involved, any post-World Cup debrief ought to examine how that situation was allowed to occur.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Intel’s weak forecast reflected how memory-chip prices are hurting demand for laptops, all while information-technology teams have to balance spending on AI tools against hardware purchases.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
In 1934, when two undefeated teams, New York University and City College of New York, played, nine of the 10 starters were Jewish.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
During the night I pass teams and they pass me.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
In Asia, it has teamed up with South Korea’s SK Group to build data centers.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
In 2013, Bourne and Willis teamed up with McFly to make McBusted, before Simpson rejoined Busted for a full reunion in 2015.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
Igor Soglayev alleges he teamed up in early 2024 with Moscow-backed traders known as the Coral network.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
This year, the retail giant teamed up with Subway, Dunkin’, and Papa John’s to offer fast food delivery.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
“I’m just saying, Wiki and Leen see things differently than us. It’s not like we never teamed up before.”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
In an address to a Montreal research institute before the summit with Carney, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the Cohere-Aleph Alpha merger, citing the "strong appetite for teaming up."
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026
This is the backdrop to the promise of an "alliance of the future" between Canada and the EU, and the idea of "teaming up" with the UK too.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
Google Cloud and Accenture are teaming up on the latest bet that forward-deployed engineers are key to unlocking business value from generative AI, the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Isabelle Bousquette reports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
In these situations, two ships are essentially teaming up to move crude out of the Persian Gulf.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
The two women found themselves teaming up to try to keep Mandela out of trouble.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
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