Badminton players hit a shuttlecock over a net with light racquets; tennis players hit a ball over a net with heavier, strung racquets. If it bounces on the ground, it is tennis; if it flies straight over without bouncing, it is badminton.
The core difference
Badminton is played with a shuttlecock, while tennis is played with a ball.
- badminton — a racquet sport in which players hit a shuttlecock back and forth over a net, played as singles or doubles: They set up a badminton net in the backyard for the summer barbecue.
- tennis — a sport in which two or four players hit a ball back and forth over a net using racquets: They played tennis every Saturday morning at the local club.
How to tell them apart
The object being hit is the simplest test. Badminton uses a shuttlecock, a light, cone-shaped projectile that never bounces, so the game is fast and played on a smaller court. Tennis uses a ball that bounces on the court between shots, played on a larger surface such as grass, clay or a hard court.
The names hint at their origins too. Badminton is named after Badminton House, the English estate where the modern game took shape, while tennis traces back to the Old French call tenez, shouted by a server before play in an earlier version of the game.
