football
noun
Simple meaning
A sport played on foot in which teams try to get a ball into a goal or zone defended by the other team.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fuutbawlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfʊtbɔl
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
A sport played on foot in which teams attempt to get a ball into a goal or zone defended by the other team.
Any of various games played with a ball (round or oval) in which two teams try to kick or carry or propel the ball into each other's goal
USuncountable
The inflated oblong ball used in playing American football
usuncountable
American football: a game played on a field 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide in which two teams of 11 players attempt to get an ovoid ball to the end of each other's territory.
uncountable
Practice of these particular games, or techniques used in them.
irelanduncountable
Gaelic football: a field game played with similar rules to hurling, but using hands and feet rather than a stick, and a ball, similar to, yet smaller than a soccer ball.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A sport played on foot in which teams attempt to get a ball into a goal or zone defended by the other team.
Used this way, football 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.
More ways to use football
- “My brother loves to watch football games every Sunday.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
An athlete who plays American football.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The playing field on which football is played.
Any of various games played with a ball (round or oval) in which two teams try to kick or carry or propel the ball into each other's goal.
A padded helmet with a face mask to protect the head of football players.
A football player who has achieved a reputation for success.
A league of football teams.
An official who enforces the rules at a football game.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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What Does It Mean Here?
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.