noun
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a game in which two teams hit a large ball back and forth over a high net with their hands
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the ball used in this game
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of volleyball
Explanation
Interested in playing a team sport? Consider volleyball, a game in which players use their arms and hands to hit a ball across a net, trying to keep the ball in the air. Teams score a point when the volleyball hits the floor on their opponent's side. There are two ways to play volleyball: in a gym and outside in the sand, a style known as beach volleyball. The indoor version requires six players per team, while the beach style has two players per side. Volleyball is a serious sport (it's even played in the Olympics), but you can also play for fun at a picnic or at the beach. Volleyball was invented in the late 1800s, right around the time basketball was first catching on.
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:
Like Guardiola, Maresca talks to Julio Velasco, an Argentine-Italian volleyball coach, and basketball coach Ettore Messina, as he searches for ideas outside of football.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Chiedza, who could not swim, got out of her depth while fetching a volleyball from the sea while playing with her 11-year-old cousin.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
Los Angeles is getting another pro women’s volleyball team.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
The two volleyball teams coming to L.A. will join the WNBA’s Sparks and NWSL’s Angel City FC as local pro women’s sports teams.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
Our school won in field hockey and volleyball, then the other school won basketball.
From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola
The real-life adaptation, created by students in the United States in 2005, is equally fast-paced and sees so-called chasers trying to throw quaffles - semi-deflated volleyballs - through the opposition's hoops.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2025
Comical as it is at times to watch 300-pound linemen lunge for volleyballs, the drill has a purpose.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 3, 2022
During a mostly overcast and breezy Sunday at the Hermosa Beach Pier, the fight for the $125,000 purse intensified as the tournament’s darlings fisted volleyballs and grunted into the sunscreen-scented air.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2022
Officials in gloves sanitize the volleyballs, wipe down the table tennis surface and spray down the corners of the boxing rings.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 5, 2021
A few of the kids have decided to kick off their weekends by hurling volleyballs at the giant clock.
From "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead
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.
