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basketball

basketball definition

☆ basket·ball (-bôl′)

noun

a game played by two opposing teams of usually five players on a rectangular, often wooden, court with a raised basket at each end: points are scored by tossing a ball through the basket at the opponent's end
the large, round, inflated ball used in this game

Etymology: invented & named (1891) by James A. Naismith (1861-1939) at Y.M.C.A. College, Springfield, Mass.

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
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