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softball

noun

Simple meaning

The ball used to play the sport.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sawftbawl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsɔftbɔl

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. sports

    The ball used to play the sport.

  2. sports

    Ball used in playing softball

  3. by analogyalso attibutive

    A question designed to be easy to answer.

  4. sports

    A game closely resembling baseball that is played on a smaller diamond and with a ball that is larger and softer

  5. sports

    A game similar to baseball but played with a larger and softer ball which can be thrown overhand or underhand.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
General and technical use

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Game / ball

softball gamesoftball teamplayed softballsoftball leaguesoftball playeramateur softball

Other combinations

pitch softballsoftball field

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • softball gamenounCompound term

    A game closely resembling baseball that is played on a smaller diamond and with a ball that is larger and softer.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: ball used to play the sport

softball gameRare

Antonyms

Sense: ball used to play the sport

hardballRare

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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.