. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
you have here. The definition of the word
will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle English sporten ( verb ) and sport , spoort , sporte ( noun ) , apheretic shortenings of disporten ( verb ) and disport , disporte ( noun ) . More at disport .
Pronunciation
Noun
sport (countable and uncountable , plural sports )
( countable ) Any activity that uses physical exertion or skills competitively under a set of rules that is not based on aesthetics.
( countable ) A person who exhibits either good or bad sportsmanship .
Jen may have won, but she was sure a poor sport ; she laughed at the loser.
The loser was a good sport , and congratulated Jen on her performance.
( countable ) Somebody who behaves or reacts in an admirably good-natured manner, e.g. to being teased or to losing a game; a good sport .
You're such a sport ! You never get upset when we tease you.
( archaic ) That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.
1591 (date written), William Shakespeare , “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. (First Folio ), London: Isaac Iaggard , and Ed Blount , published 1623 , →OCLC , :Think it but a minute spent in sport .
c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e. , Philip Sidney ], “ Chapter 21”, in [Fulke Greville ; Matthew Gwinne ; John Florio ], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia ], London: [John Windet ] for William Ponsonbie , published 1590 , →OCLC , folio 283, recto :Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.
a. 1765 , year of origin unknown, Hey Diddle Diddle (traditional rhyme)
The little dog laughed to see such sport , and the dish ran away with the spoon.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hobby
( archaic ) Mockery, making fun; derision.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare , “The Merry Wiues of Windsor ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio ), London: Isaac Iaggard , and Ed Blount , published 1623 , →OCLC , , page 58 , column 2:Why then make ſport at me, then let me be your ieſt
( countable ) A toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
1697 , Virgil , “The Sixth Book of the Æneis ”, in John Dryden , transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson , , →OCLC :flitting leaves, the sport of every wind
a. 1676 , John Clarke, On Governing the Temper :Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned passions.
( uncountable ) Gaming for money as in racing, hunting, or fishing.
( biology , botany , zoology , countable ) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. The term encompasses both mutants and organisms with non-genetic developmental abnormalities such as birth defects .
2014 September 26, Charles Quest-Ritson, “The Dutch garden where tulip bulbs live forever: Hortus Bulborum, a volunteer-run Dutch garden, is dedicated to conserving historic varieties before they vanish for good [print version: Inspired by a living bulb archive, 27 September 2014, p. G5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening) :At Hortus Bulborum you will find heirloom narcissi that date back at least to the 15th century and famous old tulips like 'Duc van Tol' (1595) and its sports .
( slang , countable ) A sportsman ; a gambler.
( slang , countable ) One who consorts with disreputable people, including prostitutes.
( obsolete , uncountable ) An amorous dalliance .
( informal , usually singular) A friend or acquaintance (chiefly used when speaking to the friend in question)
1924 July, Ellis Butler, “The Little Tin Godlets”, in The Rotarian , volume 25 , number 1, Rotary International, page 14 :"Say, sport !" he would say briskly.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:friend
Term of endearment used by an adult for a child, usually a boy .
Hey, sport ! You've gotten so big since I saw you last! Give me five.
( archaic ) Play; idle jingle.
1725-1726 , William Broome , The Odyssey
An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage would meet with small applause.
Derived terms
Descendants
From plural sports :
Japanese: スポーツ ( supōtsu )
Korean: 스포츠 ( seupocheu )
Translations
any athletic activity that uses physical skills
Afrikaans: sport (af)
Albanian: sport (sq) m
Amharic: ስፖርት ( səport )
Arabic: رِيَاضَة f ( riyāḍa )
Aragonese: esporte m
Armenian: սպորտ (hy) ( sport )
Assamese: ক্ৰীড়া ( krira ) , খেল ( khel )
Asturian: deporte (ast) m
Azerbaijani: idman (az) , sport (az)
Bashkir: спорт ( sport )
Basque: kirol (eu)
Belarusian: спорт (be) m ( sport )
Bengali: ক্রীড়া (bn) ( kriṛa ) , খেল (bn) ( khel )
Berber:
Tashelhit: (please verify ) tunnunt f
Bulgarian: спорт (bg) m ( sport )
Burmese: အားကစား (my) ( a:ka.ca: )
Buryat: тамир ( tamir ) , спорт ( sport )
Carpathian Rusyn: шпорт m ( šport )
Catalan: esport (ca) m , deport (ca) m
Chechen: спорт ( sport )
Chinese:
Cantonese: 運動 / 运动 ( wan6 dung6 )
Dungan: йүндун ( yündun )
Eastern Min: 運動 / 运动 ( ông-dông )
Hakka: 運動 / 运动 ( yun-thung )
Hokkien: 運動 / 运动 (zh-min-nan) ( ūn-tōng / ūn-tǒng )
Mandarin: 運動 / 运动 (zh) ( yùndòng )
Wu: 運動 / 运动 ( 6 yun-don; 6 yon-don)
Chuvash: спорт ( sport )
Crimean Tatar: sport
Czech: sport (cs) m
Danish: sport (da) c , idræt (da) c
Dutch: sport (nl) m
Esperanto: sporto
Estonian: sport (et)
Extremaduran: deporti m
Faroese: ítróttur m , ítrótt f
Finnish: urheilulaji (fi) , kilpailulaji , urheilu (fi)
French: sport (fr) m
Galician: deporte (gl) m , xogo (gl) m
Georgian: სპორტი ( sṗorṭi )
German: Sport (de) m
Greek: άθλημα (el) n ( áthlima )
Ancient: ἄθλημα n ( áthlēma ) , ἀγών m ( agṓn )
Gujarati: રમતગમત m ( ramtagmat ) , ખેલ m ( khel )
Haitian Creole: espò
Hebrew: סְפּוֹרְט (he) m ( sport ) , מלעב ( milʿav ) ( archaic )
Hindi: वर्ज़िश f ( varziś ) , खेल (hi) m ( khel ) , खेल-कूद m ( khel-kūd ) , स्पोर्ट ? ( sporṭ )
Hungarian: sport (hu)
Icelandic: íþrótt (is) f
Ido: sporto (io)
Indonesian: olahraga (id)
Irish: spórt m
Italian: sport (it) m , diporto (it) m
Japanese: 運動 (ja) ( うんどう, undō ) , スポーツ (ja) ( supōtsu )
Kannada: ಕ್ರೀಡೆಗಳು (kn) ( krīḍegaḷu )
Kapampangan: pasiknangan
Kashubian: szpòrt m
Kazakh: спорт ( sport )
Khmer: កីឡា (km) ( kəylaa )
Korean: 운동(運動) (ko) ( undong ) , 스포츠 (ko) ( seupocheu )
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: وەرزش (ckb) ( werziş )
Northern Kurdish: sîpor (ku) , werziş (ku)
Kyrgyz: спорт (ky) ( sport )
Lao: ກິລາ (lo) ( ki lā )
Latvian: sports m
Lithuanian: spòrtas (lt) m
Macedonian: спорт (mk) m ( sport )
Malay: sukan (ms)
Malayalam: കായികവിനോദം ( kāyikavinōdaṁ ) , ക്രീഡ (ml) ( krīḍa )
Maltese: sport m
Manchu: ᡴᠠᡨᡠ᠋ᡵᡝᠪᡠᠨ ( katurebun )
Maori: hākinakina
Marathi: खेळ (mr) m ( kheḷ )
Mirandese: çporto m
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: спорт (mn) ( sport )
Mongolian: ᠰᠫᠣᠷᠲ᠋ ( sport )
Nepali: खेल (ne) ( khel )
Norwegian:
Bokmål: idrett m , sport (no) m
Nynorsk: idrett m , sport m
Odia: ଖେଳ (or) ( kheḷa ) , କ୍ରୀଡା ( kriḍā )
Pali: kīḷā f
Pannonian Rusyn: спорт m ( sport ) , шпорт m ( šport )
Pashto: ورزش m ( warzᶕš ) , سپورټ (ps) m ( sporṭ )
Persian:
Classical Persian: وَرْزِش ( warziš )
Iranian Persian: وَرْزِش ( varzeš )
Polish: sport (pl) m
Portuguese: ( Brazil ) esporte (pt) m , ( Portugal ) desporto (pt) m
Punjabi: ਖੇਡ ? ( kheḍ )
Romanian: sport (ro) n
Russian: спорт (ru) m ( sport )
Sanskrit: क्रीडा (sa) f ( krīḍā )
Scottish Gaelic: spòrs f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: спо̏рт m , шпо̏рт m
Roman: spȍrt (sh) m , špȍrt (sh) m
Sinhalese: ක්රීඩා (si) ? ( krīḍā )
Slovak: šport (sk) m
Slovene: šport (sl) m
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: sport m
Spanish: deporte (es) m
Swahili: spoti (sw) ? , riadha (sw) class 9/10
Swedish: sport (sv) c , idrott (sv) c
Tagalog: palakasan
Tajik: варзиш (tg) ( varziš ) , спорт ( sport )
Tamil: விளையாட்டு (ta) ( viḷaiyāṭṭu )
Tatar: спорт ( sport )
Telugu: ఆటలు (te) ( āṭalu )
Thai: กีฬา (th) ( gii-laa ) , สปอร์ต ( sà-bpɔ̀ɔt )
Tibetan: ལུས་རྩལ ( lus rtsal )
Tigrinya: ስፖርት ( səport )
Turkish: spor (tr) , yöndün (tr)
Turkmen: sport
Ukrainian: спорт (uk) m ( sport )
Urdu: وَرْزِش (ur) f ( varziś ) , کھیل m ( khel ) , سْپورْٹ ( sporṭ )
Uyghur: سپورت ( sport ) , تەنتەربىيە ( tenterbiye )
Uzbek: sport (uz)
Vietnamese: thể thao (vi) (體操 )
Volapük: spot (vo)
Walloon: spôrt (wa) m
Yakut: спорт ( sport )
Yiddish: ספּאָרט ? ( sport )
Zhuang: yindung
person who exhibits either good or bad sportsmanship
somebody who behaves or reacts in an admirable manner
gaming for money as in racing, hunting, fishing
slang: sportsman; gambler
Verb
sport (third-person singular simple present sports , present participle sporting , simple past and past participle sported )
( intransitive ) To amuse oneself, to play .
children sporting on the green
( intransitive ) To mock or tease, treat lightly, toy with.
Jen sports with Bill's emotions.
1663 , John Tillotson , The Wisdom of being Religious :He sports with his own life.
( transitive ) To display ; to have as a notable feature .
Jen's sporting a new pair of shoes; he was sporting a new wound from the combat
1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine , page 704 :But despite its plague of tunnels, the run-in on this route is of unusual interest to the locomotive enthusiast: besides the hordes of self-important saddle-tanks shunting in the extensive yards, there was at one time the chance of seeing those slender little North London engines, with their large outside cylinders and no visible storage place for coal, and also an occasional South Eastern locomotive sporting a lot of polished brass.
2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere ”, in The Economist , volume 408 , number 8845 :[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
2023 June 3, Carl Zimmer , “How Did Birds First Take Off?”, in The New York Times :He was especially happy to see one of the most important discoveries make it to the screen: dinosaurs that sported feathers. But judging from the emails he has been receiving, some moviegoers did not share his excitement.
( reflexive ) To divert ; to amuse ; to make merry .
( transitive ) To represent by any kind of play.
To practise the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant or from the type of the species ; said of a bud, shoot, plant, or animal.
1860 , Charles Darwin , The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication :more than one kind of rose has sported into a moss
( transitive , archaic ) To close (a door ).
1904 , M. R. James , The Mezzotint :There he locked it up in a drawer, sported the doors of both sets of rooms, and retired to bed.
Derived terms
Translations
References
( sportsman, gambler ) : 1873 , John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary
Anagrams
Czech
Pronunciation
Noun
sport m inan
sport
Declension
Declension of sport (hard masculine inanimate )
Derived terms
Further reading
“sport ”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
“sport ”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
Dutch
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Borrowed from English sport , from Middle English sport , from Middle English sport , from older disport , from Old French desport . First attested in the 19th century. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Noun
sport f (plural sporten , diminutive sportje n )
( countable ) a sport ; ( uncountable ) sports
Mijn buurman is dol op sport . ― My neighbour is keen on sports .
Darts is de gezondste sport op aarde. ― Darts is the most healthy sport on Earth.
Derived terms
Descendants
Etymology 2
From Middle Dutch sporte , metathesised form of sprote . This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Noun
sport f (plural sporten , diminutive sportje n )
rung , step on a ladder
Descendants
Etymology 3
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
sport
inflection of sporten :
first / second / third-person singular present indicative
imperative
Anagrams
Estonian
Etymology
From German Sport , from English sport .
Noun
sport (genitive spordi , partitive sporti )
sport , sports
Declension
References
French
Etymology
English sport .
Pronunciation
Noun
sport m (plural sports )
sport
Derived terms
Descendants
Further reading
Hungarian
Pronunciation
Noun
sport (plural sportok )
sport
Declension
Derived terms
Further reading
sport in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh . A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz. ). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
Italian
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English sport . Doublet of diporto .
Pronunciation
IPA (key ) : /ˈspɔrt/
Rhymes: -ɔrt
Hyphenation: spòrt
Noun
sport m (invariable )
sport (activity that uses physical skills, often competitive)
hobby , pastime
fare qualcosa per sport ― to do something for fun
Derived terms
Lower Sorbian
Etymology
Borrowed from English sport .
Pronunciation
Noun
sport m inan
sport ( athletic activity that uses physical skills )
Declension
References
Starosta, Manfred (1999 ) “sport ”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
Norman
Noun
sport m (plural sports )
( Jersey ) sport (physical activity pitting two or more opponents against each other)
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology 1
From English sport .
Noun
sport m (definite singular sporten , uncountable )
sport
Synonym: idrett
Derived terms
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
sport
past participle of spore
References
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
From English sport .
Noun
sport m (definite singular sporten , uncountable )
sport
Synonym: idrett
Derived terms
References
Polish
Etymology
Borrowed from English sport .
Pronunciation
IPA (key ) : /ˈspɔrt/
Rhymes: -ɔrt
Syllabification: sport
Noun
sport m inan
sport
Declension
Derived terms
Further reading
sport in Wielki słownik języka polskiego , Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
sport in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French sport .
Pronunciation
Noun
sport n (plural sporturi )
sport
Declension
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology
Borrowed from English sport .
Pronunciation
Noun
spȍrt m (Cyrillic spelling спо̏рт )
sport
Declension
Derived terms
Swedish
Etymology 1
Borrowed from English sport , first used in 1857.
Pronunciation
Noun
sport c
( uncountable ) sports
( countable ) a sport
Declension
Derived terms
See also
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation
Verb
sport
supine of spörja
References
Anagrams
West Frisian
Etymology
Borrowed from Dutch sport , from English sport .
Pronunciation
Noun
sport c (plural sporten )
sport ( physical activity )
Further reading
“sport ”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011