screwball
7 synonyms for screwball, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A baseball pitch thrown with a twisting wrist motion that curves opposite to a normal curveball.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun
A baseball pitch thrown with a twisting wrist motion that curves opposite to a normal curveball.
“The pitcher struck him out with a wicked screwball.”
2. adj
Eccentric, zany, or absurd, especially in a comic way.
“The film is a classic screwball comedy from the 1930s.”
How to use screwball
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Etymology
From screw + ball, describing the pitch's odd twisting motion; the sense of "crazy person" grew out of that same idea of something spinning off in an unexpected direction.
Full origin of screwball →