Volleyball
nounA team game in which players use their hands to hit a large ball back and forth over a high net.
How to spell volleyball
10 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce volleyball
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does volleyball mean?
- nounA team game in which players use their hands to hit a large ball back and forth over a high net.
Volleyball in a sentence
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The resort had a sandy court where guests played volleyball each afternoon.
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She joined the office volleyball league to meet new colleagues.
Where does volleyball come from?
Language of origin: French
This is a compound built from 'volley' and 'ball'. 'Volley' arrived in English in the 1500s from the French volée, meaning 'a flight' or, in tennis, the act of returning a ball before it has touched the ground; that French noun traces back to the Latin verb volare, which literally meant 'to fly'. 'Ball' is a much older, native Germanic word for a round object. The two were joined in the United States in 1895, when William G. Morgan invented the sport at a YMCA in Massachusetts and named it for the way the ball is kept flying back and forth over the net without landing. The spelling trap sits in the middle: the double 'l' of 'volley' meets the double 'l' of 'ball', so the word carries two separate sets of doubled letters that writers easily reduce by one.
How the word is built
- volley (from French volée: a flight, a returning of the ball before it touches ground)
- ball (a round object used in games)
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