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basketball

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A game played on a court by two opposing teams of 5 players.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

baskuhtbawl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbæskətbɔl

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. sportsuncountable

    A game played on a court by two opposing teams of 5 players; points are scored by throwing the ball through an elevated horizontal hoop

  2. sportsuncountable

    A sport in which two opposing teams of five players strive to put a ball through a hoop.

  3. An inflated ball used in playing basketball

  4. countable

    The particular kind of ball used in the sport of basketball.

verb

  1. informalintransitive

    To play basketball.

  2. informaltransitive

    To throw in a similar way to when shooting a basketball.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A game played on a court by two opposing teams of 5 players; points are scored by throwing the ball through an elevated horizontal hoop

Used this way, basketball is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Law/legal
  • Government/politics
  • Academic writing
  • Sports

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use basketball

  • “The children love playing basketball in the driveway after school.”noun

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: game played on a court by two opposing teams of 5 players

basketball game

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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.