Pinball

How to spell pinball

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pinball

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pinball mean?

1. nounAn arcade game in which a metal ball is propelled around a sloped table and scored by striking bumpers and targets.

Pinball in a sentence

• The old pinball machine in the corner of the bar still took coins.

• He spent the whole evening playing pinball and chasing a high score.

Where does pinball come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Pinball is a transparent compound of two very old native English words. 'Pin' descends from the Old English 'pinn', meaning a peg or bolt, while 'ball' comes through Middle English from a Germanic root for a round object, related to forms in Old Norse and shared across the Germanic languages. The game itself takes its name from the small upright pins that early bagatelle-style tables used to deflect a rolling metal ball, with players scoring by where the ball came to rest. The combined term emerged in American English in the 1930s as the spring-launched, coin-operated arcade machine took its modern shape with bumpers and flippers. Because both halves are short, familiar everyday words, the spelling holds no real surprises beyond remembering it is written as a single closed compound.

How the word is built

• pin (a small metal peg or pole)
• ball (a rolling sphere)