ball
/boːl/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.04 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "a ball of spittle; a fecal ball"
- "a ball of wool; a ball of twine"
- "This dish is served with balls of potato."
- "[…] the Good Old Cause, which, as they seemed to represent it, smelt of Gunpowder and ball […]"
- "I gave each of them a Musket with a Firelock on it, and about eight Charges of Powder and Ball, charging them to be very good Husbands of both, and not to use either of them but upon urgent Occasion."
- "[…] some headstrong Maroons were using a soldier of Captain Craskell’s ill, and compelling him to write to his commander, that it was too late to do any thing good, and that they wanted nothing, having got plenty of powder and ball […]"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-der. Proto-Germanic *balluz Old English *beall Middle English bal English ball From Middle English bal, ball, balle, from an unattested Old English *beall, *bealla (“round object, ball”), from Proto-Germanic *balluz, *ballô (“ball”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰol-n- (“ball, bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, inflate, swell”). Cognate with Old Saxon ball, Dutch bal, Old High German bal, ballo (German Ball (“ball”); Ballen (“bale”)). Related forms in Romance are borrowings from Germanic. See also balloon, bale.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /boːl/
- British English: /bɔːl/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
Homonyms
bawl
(cot–caught merger, father-bother merger) Basle