football — meaning in English

English meaning

• football noun A sport where two teams try to score by getting a ball into a goal, especially soccer in most of the world or American football in the US.
• soccer noun Association football, the sport played with a round ball moved mainly by kicking, not touched by hand except by the goalkeeper.

Senses

football is used for these senses in English:

• American football A team sport similar to rugby football, played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end.
• Canadian football A game similar to American football played on a field of 110 yards long and 65 yards wide (with two 20 yard-long endzones) in which two teams of 12 players attempt to get an ovoid ball to the end of each other's territory.
• association football A ball game played between two teams of eleven players, each attempting to win by scoring more goals than their opponent.
• football (countable) The ball used in any game called "football".
• football (UK, Africa, Caribbean, South Asia, uncountable) Association football, also called soccer: a game in which two teams each contend to get a round ball into the other team's goal primarily by kicking the ball.
• soccer (originated, , late 19th C, now, commonly, US, Australia) Association football.

football — full definition

1. noun A sport where two teams try to score by getting a ball into a goal, especially soccer in most of the world or American football in the US.
2. noun The ball used in such a game.
3. noun Informal: an issue passed back and forth between people or groups without resolution.

Related French words