base on balls
noun
Simple meaning
An advance to first base by a batter who receives four balls.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
baysahnbawlzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbeɪˈsɑnˈbɔlz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
baseball
An advance to first base by a batter who receives four balls
baseball
An instance where the batter is allowed to go directly to first base without the possibility of being put out, due to the opposing pitcher delivering four balls.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: An advance to first base by a batter who receives four balls
Used this way, base on balls is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a sporting use: familiar to anyone who follows the game, and puzzling to anyone who does not.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Sports
- News/reporting
- Everyday conversation
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.