Darts

How to spell darts

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce darts

What does darts mean?

1. nounAn indoor game in which players throw small pointed missiles at a numbered circular board.
2. nounMore than one small pointed object designed to be thrown or shot at a target.
3. verbMoves suddenly and quickly in a particular direction.
4. nounTapered folds stitched into fabric to shape a garment to the body.

Darts in a sentence

• noun

  Darts is one of the most popular games in the local pub.

• noun

  The children fired soft foam darts at the cardboard target.

• verb

  The cat darts under the bed whenever the doorbell rings.

• noun

  The tailor added two darts to draw in the waist of the jacket.

• noun

  He practises darts in the garage on a regulation board.

• noun

  Three steel darts stuck firmly in the cork board.

Where does darts come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word dart came into English in the 1300s from the Old French dart, meaning a light spear or javelin thrown by hand. The French word itself goes back to a Germanic root, the Frankish *daroth, which described a pointed throwing weapon, and relatives of it turn up in Old English and Old High German for a spear or lance. Over time the meaning narrowed from a battlefield weapon to any small pointed projectile, and by the 1800s 'darts' had become the familiar name of the pub game played by throwing little feathered missiles at a numbered board. The same root also gives us the verb sense of moving suddenly and swiftly, the way a thrown dart flies, and in dressmaking a 'dart' is a tapered fold stitched to shape fabric. Because the spelling simply follows the everyday word dart with a plain -s, it holds few traps, which keeps it an easy word to write.

How the word is built

• dart (a small pointed missile)
• -s (plural noun / third-person verb suffix)