basket-ball

\bas.kɛt.bol\

/\bas.kɛt.bol\/ noun

The verdict

“basket-ball” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sport collectif de balle, qui se joue à la main, dont le but est de marquer plus de points que l’équipe adverse en marquant des paniers, c’est-à-dire en faisant passer le ballon à travers un anneau...

Corpus desk

Index FR-basket-ball · basket-ball · French

basket-ball · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for basket-ball
PropertyValue
Headwordbasket-ball
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bas.kɛt.bol\
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « basket-ball » en français

basket-ballreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

basket-ball is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \bas.kɛt.bol\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sport collectif de balle, qui se joue à la main, dont le but est de marquer plus de points que l’équipe adverse en marquant des paniers, c’est-à-dire en faisant passer le ballon à travers un anneau...".

basket-ball doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is basket-ball, spelled B-A-S-K-E-T---B-A-L-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sport collectif de balle, qui se joue à la main, dont le but est de marquer plus de points que l’équipe adverse en marquant des paniers, c’est-à-dire en faisant passer le ballon à travers un anneau placé à plusieurs mètres du sol.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how basket-ball appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Un match de basket-ball.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "basket-ball"?
"basket-ball" is spelled B-A-S-K-E-T---B-A-L-L. The IPA pronunciation is \bas.kɛt.bol\.
What does "basket-ball" mean?
As a noun, "basket-ball" means: Sport collectif de balle, qui se joue à la main, dont le but est de marquer plus de points que l’équipe adverse en marquant des paniers, c’est-à-dire en faisant passer le ballon à travers un anneau...
How do you pronounce "basket-ball"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "basket-ball" is \bas.kɛt.bol\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "basket-ball" come from?
"basket-ball" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list