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:
In the evening, Nike has flown in a custom-made outdoor volleyball court so Sherman Oaks Notre Dame can host Harvard-Westlake in a 7 p.m. girls’ volleyball match played on the Notre Dame baseball field.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
“It was such good volleyball at times by either team,” Marymount coach Cari Klein said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Over the echo of nearby explosions, they sometimes play beach volleyball near the river -- "the most beautiful place in town".
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
“You have to imagine that you just finished volleyball practice and the JV squad is having a horrendous season to really get the full picture.”
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 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
Kendrick and Lively toss barbs like volleyballs, occasionally landing a good spike that makes the other one speechless.
From Salon ● May 3, 2025
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
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.
