Ball or bawl?
ball is a noun meaning “A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass”; bawl is a verb meaning “To shout or utter in a loud and intense manner”. Use ball as a noun and bawl as a verb (bawl is also a noun: “A loud, intense shouting or wailing”). They sound the same (/bɔːl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) ball is about 525 times as common as bawl.
What is the difference between ball and bawl?
| ball | bawl | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, interjection, suffix | verb, noun |
| Meaning | A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass A quantity of string, thread, etc., wound into a spherical shape To form or wind into a ball | To shout or utter in a loud and intense manner To wail; to give out a blaring cry A loud, intense shouting or wailing |
| Example | a ball of spittle; a fecal ball | commanders bawling |
| Forms | balls | bawls, bawling, bawled |
| Pronunciation | /bɔːl/ /boːl/ /bɔl/ | /bɔːl/ /boːl/ /bɔl/ |
| In writing | 110 times per million words | about once in every 5 million words |
Sources: ball and bawl in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of ball and bawl
ball
- 1
A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass
a ball of spittle; a fecal ball
- 2
To form or wind into a ball
to ball cotton
- 3
An exclamation to inform players on an adjacent playing area that a loose ball from another game has entered their playing area; typically implies that play should be paused until the ball has been…
- 4
A formal dance
We still have pictures from the ball we had in August 2008
- 5
UKRefers to styles of football
Ange + -ball → Angeball
- 6
derogatoryslangforms nouns with the meaning "one who is characterized by"
goof + -ball → goofball
- 7
A quantity of string, thread, etc., wound into a spherical shape
a ball of wool; a ball of twine
- 8
To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling
bawl
- 1
To shout or utter in a loud and intense manner
commanders bawling
- 2
A loud, intense shouting or wailing
- 3
To wail; to give out a blaring cry
children bawling
- 4
To weep profusely
children bawling
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, ball or bawl?
ball appears 110 times per million words; bawl about once in every 5 million words.
ball 110 times per million wordsbawl about once in every 5 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).