baseball

The word “baseball” means a bat-and-ball sport, especially popular in the US, Caribbean and parts of East Asia, in which players score by hitting a ball and running around four bases. In plain terms, the American bat-and-ball game played with four bases, or the ball used in it.

“Baseball” is pronounced BAYS-bawl (/ˈbeɪs.bɔl/ in IPA).

Here is “baseball” used in a sentence: “They spent the whole summer playing baseball in the local park.”

“Baseball” is a noun.

“Baseball” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.

“Baseball” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a bat-and-ball sport, especially popular in the US, Caribbean and parts of East Asia, in which players score by hitting a ball and running around four bases.

They share the same basic rules but differ in scale and equipment. Softball uses a larger, softer ball pitched underhand on a smaller field with a flat pitching area, while baseball uses a smaller, harder ball pitched overhand from a raised mound. Baseball games run nine innings; softball usually runs seven.

Both are bat-and-ball games, but their layouts differ sharply. Baseball uses a diamond of four bases that runners circle in one direction, while cricket uses a straight central pitch with two batters running between wickets. Cricket matches can last hours or days; baseball is built around nine shorter innings. Baseball dominates the Americas, cricket the former British nations.

Nine players take the field for the defending team at any one time: a pitcher, a catcher, four infielders — first, second, and third base plus shortstop — and three outfielders. Full professional rosters are much larger, around twenty-six players, to allow for substitutions, relief pitchers, and bench batters over a long season.

Baseball earned the nickname in the nineteenth century, when it spread rapidly across the United States and became the nation's leading spectator sport. For generations it was woven into American summers, small towns, and popular culture. Although American football now rivals it in viewership, baseball keeps the historic title thanks to its deep national roots.