English
football
Pronunciation
  • (GA) IPA: /ˈfʊtbɔl/
    • IPA: [ˈfʊʔtbɔɫ], [ˈfʊʔt̚bɔɫ]
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈfʊtbɔːl/
    • IPA: [ˈfʊʔt̚bɔːl], [ˈfʊʔtʰbɔːl], [ˈfʊʔbɔːl]
  • (Canada) IPA: /ˈfʊtbɑl/
    • IPA: [fʷʊʔt̚bɑɫ]
Noun

football

  1. (general) A sport played on foot in which teams attempt to get a ball into a goal or zone defended by the other team.
    Roman and medieval football matches were more violent than any modern type of football.
  2. (UK, uncountable) Association football: a game in which two teams each contend to get a round ball into the other team's goal primarily by kicking the ball. Known as soccer in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:football
    Each team scored three goals when they played football.
  3. (US, uncountable) American football: a game played on a field of 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide in which two teams of 11 players attempt to get an ovoid ball to the end of each other's territory.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:football
    Each team scored two touchdowns when they played football.
  4. (Canada, uncountable) Canadian football: a game played on a played on a field of 110 yards long and 65 yards wide in which two teams of 12 players attempt to get an ovoid ball to the end of each other's territory.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:football
    They played football in the snow.
  5. (Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory, uncountable) Australian rules football.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:football
  6. (Ireland, uncountable) Gaelic football: a field game played with similar rules to hurling, but using hands and feet rather than a stick, and a ball, similar to, yet smaller than a soccer ball.
  7. (Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, uncountable) rugby league.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:football
  8. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, uncountable) rugby union.
  9. (countable) The ball used in any game called "football".
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:football
    The player kicked the football.
  10. (uncountable) Practice of these particular games, or techniques used in them.
  11. (figuratively, countable) An item of discussion, particularly in a back-and-forth manner
    That budget item became a political football.
  12. (US military slang, countable) The leather briefcase containing classified nuclear war plans which is always near the US President.
    Synonyms: nuclear football, atomic football, black box, black bag
    cot en
    • 1994, Herbert L. Abrams, The President Has Been Shot: Confusion, Disability, and the 25th Amendment, Stanford University Press (ISBN 9780804723251), page 126 ↗:
      The aide rides, along with the president's physician, in the “control car,” third in line in the motorcade. He is responsible for the football (or “black box” or “black bag”), a briefcase containing the codes and targeting information the president would require to order or authorize a nuclear attack.
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • French: ballon de foot, ballon
  • German: Fußball
  • Italian: pallone, palla da calcio, palla, pallone da calcio
  • Portuguese: bola de futebol
  • Russian: футбо́льный мяч


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