Team

How to spell team

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce team

What does team mean?

1. nounA group of people who work or play together toward a shared goal.
2. verbTo join with others to work together, often followed by 'up'.

Team in a sentence

• noun

  The sales team exceeded its targets this quarter.

• verb

  The two departments will team up to deliver the launch.

• noun

  Each team was given a separate project room.

• verb

  Local charities often team with schools on these events.

Where does team come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Team comes from the Old English word 'team', which originally meant offspring, a brood, or a line of descendants, and by extension a set of draught animals harnessed together to pull a plough or wagon. It traces back to a Germanic root linked to the idea of pulling or drawing, the same notion that gave us the verb 'to tow'. The sense slowly shifted from animals yoked to work together toward any group of people working together for a common goal, a meaning that became common from the 1500s onward and dominated by the time of organised sport. Because the word kept its simple Old English shape, it is spelled with the 'ea' vowel pattern, which is the main trap: it sounds identical to 'teem' (to swarm or overflow), so the two are easily swapped in writing. Remembering that a team is a tight, single unit can help anchor the everyday meaning.

How the word is built

• team (Old English team: a yoking together, a set pulling as one)