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Sports Vocabulary | List of Useful Sports Vocabulary With Description and Pictures

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Sports Vocabulary: Sports are any sort of usually competitive physical activity that aims to use, maintain, or enhance physical ability and skills while giving amusement to participants and, in some circumstances, spectators through casual or organised involvement. There is an extensive selection of words in English that one must know to increase their sports vocabulary.

We come across the names of these sports and even participate in them in our daily lives, so we must know these names and their descriptions. Further in this article, you will get sports vocabulary words listed to improve your knowledge and communication skills. Hence, we have made a curated and simple list of useful sports vocabulary for you to learn the names of sports along with their meanings and pictures.

Study the most important English Vocabulary Words identified by our experts and learn the right vocabulary to use in your day to day conversations.

List of Useful Sports Vocabulary Words in English

Name of Useful Sports Vocabulary words

The different sports and their pictures will help you increase your knowledge in the world of sports and athletics. You will get the description of the listed sports vocabulary with pictures of various sports that will improve your useful sports vocabulary.

Thus, we have listed the detailed sports vocabulary with meaning as we should also know their descriptions to understand and know the significance of each sport.

List of Useful Sports

Description of the Useful Sports Vocabulary words.

Archery

Archery is the sport, skill or practice of using a bow and arrow to shoot arrows. It is a competitive and recreational sport in which the archer shoots with a bow and arrows specifically at a target as a sport.

Athletics

Athletics is a group of sporting events competing in track and field events. It includes walking, competitive running, jumping, and throwing. The most popular athletics games or competitions are track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking.

Badminton

Badminton is typically a racquet sport that is played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock on a rectangular court across a high net. The most common formats of this game are singles and doubles, although it may be played with larger teams.

Basketball

Basketball is a competitive sport where two teams of five players oppose one another on a rectangular court and compete with the prime aim of shooting a basketball through the defender’s hoop while hindering the opposing team from scoring a goal through their hoop. A goal is scored when a ball is thrown in the netted ring fixed at each end of the court.

Baseball

Baseball is a competitive sport played by a bat-and-ball between two opposing teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. It is played on a diamond-shaped circuit of four bases, mainly as a warm-weather sport in the United States and Canada. The game begins when a player on the fielding team, known as the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the opponent batting team tries to hit with a bat.

Cricket

Cricket is a competitive bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players each. On the centre of the field is a 22-yard pitch with a wicket at each end. The doors comprise two bails balanced on three stumps. It is played on an oval field and involves batting, fielding and bowling. The team batting tries to score runs, while the other team fielding tries to prevent the other team from scoring by following a set of rules.

Chess

Chess is a competitive and recreational board game played between two players. It is a game of strategic skills played on a chequered board where each player gets 16 pieces to move that includes the King, Queen, Knight, Rook, Bishop, and Pawn. Each of the playing pieces moves according to specific rules, and the aim is to directly attack the opponent’s king from which escape is impossible, called the checkmate.

Bowling

Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball down a narrow, long lane toward a group of objects known as pins or another target, with the aim to knock down more number of pins than the opponent.

Boxing

In boxing, two boxers fight with fists and throw punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time in a roped square ring called the boxing ring. It is a combat sport, and for protection, they usually wear protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards.

Hockey

In hockey, two teams consisting of eleven players in each team play against each other by directing a ball or a puck into the opponent’s goal at opposite ends of a field using hooked sticks called the hockey stick. Hockey is of various types, such as field hockey, ice hockey, rink hockey, and bandy.

Tennis

Tennis is a racket sport in which each player hits a hollow rubber ball coated in felt over or else around a net and into the opposition’s court with a tennis racket connected with a cord. Tennis is played by a single player against a single opponent in singles or by two teams of two players in doubles. Tennis is traditionally played with a felt-covered hollow rubber ball on a grass, clay, or artificial surface, and was originally known as lawn tennis.

Table tennis

Table tennis, commonly known as ping-pong or whiff-whaff, is an indoor tennis game played with small bats and a ball bounced against a net on a table. Two or four players make use of small rackets to strike a lightweight ball, often called as a ping-pong ball, in a pattern of back and forth across a table on a hard table split by a net in this sport.

Football (U.K)/ Soccer (U.S., Australia)

Football or soccer is a sport played with a spherical ball between two teams consisting of 11 players each. Football or soccer is played on a rectangular field, called a pitch with a goalpost or goal at each end. It is the world’s most popular sport, and the primary main is to get the ball over a goal line, into a goal, or between goalposts by running, passing, or kicking to score a goal. To win the game, a team needs to score more goals than the opposition, usually within a time limit of 90 or more minutes.

Golf

Golf is a club-and-ball sport where players use various clubs to hit small, hard balls into a series of holes laid on a course in the ground. It is a game played on a large open-air course, and the aim is to use the least possible strokes to complete the course.

Curling

Curling is a sport wherein players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area segmented into four concentric circles. This game is played on ice where large round flat stones are slid across the surface towards a mark. It is a popular sport in Scotland and Canada, and team members use brooms to slide the stone by sweeping the surface of the ice in the path of the stone to control its speed and direction.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding is an action sport that originated in the United States. Here an individual rides and performs tricks using a skateboard. Apart from being a sport, it is a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation as well.

Swimming

Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires using one’s entire body to move through the water using the limbs. The sport takes place in swimming pools, the sea, rivers, and lakes. Swimming is performed for exercise, for fun, and as a sport. There are different styles of swimming, known as strokes, that include the front crawl, freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke.

Diving

Diving is a sport in which athletes jump or fall into the water, usually with their heads first and their arms straight above their heads, typically while performing acrobatics from a platform or springboard.

Water polo

Water polo is a water-based team sport in which two teams of seven players compete against each other. The game is branched into four quarters, with each side attempting to score goals by shooting the ball into the opposite team’s goal. After the game is over, the team that scored the highest number of goals wins.

Rowing

Rowing, often known as crew in the United States, is a sport in which boats are propelled or raced using oars. It’s usually done by facing the stern and pulling the oar handle toward oneself, then repeatedly pushing the blade backward into the water with an oarlock as a fulcrum. Sculling and sweep rowing are the two types of rowing.

Surfing

Surfing is a water sport typically performed on the surface of the water. A surfer uses a surfboard to ride while standing or lying down on the forward section or face of a moving water wave, usually carrying the surfer towards the shore.

Sailing

Sailing consists of a variety of competitive sailing styles sanctioned by various sailing federations and yacht clubs across the world. Matches among a fleet of sailing craft, between a pair, or among teams are all examples of sailing racing disciplines. There are many different events and sailboats to choose from, ranging from huge yachts to dinghy racing.

Windsurfing

Windsurfing is a water activity that combines surfing and sailing. It is done on the ocean surface. It is also known as sailboarding or boardsailing, and it developed in California’s surf culture. It’s a water activity in which you stand on a board with a giant sail and hang on to it as you sail over the sea.

Roller skating

Roller skating is a recreational and competitive activity in which athletes move around on rinks or paved surfaces wearing special shoes with small wheels called roller skates. It is also used as a mode of transportation. Roller skating can be done on rinks, skate parks, city streets, sidewalks, and bike lanes.

Ice skating

Self-propulsion, gliding, or movement on an ice surface while wearing metal-bladed ice skates is referred to as ice skating.

Figure skating

Figure skating is a sport in which a single person, a pair of people, or a group of people skate on ice wearing ice skates. A skater that engages in the sport or activity travels swiftly on the ice, develops patterns, and frequently jumps.

Skiing

Skiing is a sport, hobby, and form of transportation that involves travelling over snow with a pair of flat and long runners known as skis that are attached or bonded to shoes or boots. Nordic, Alpine, and freestyle competitions are the three types of competitive skiing.

Yoga

Physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines, when combined to form a new set of disciplines that have their origins in ancient India, is known as yoga. Controlled breathing, basic meditation, and adopting specific bodily postures that are commonly utilised for health and relaxation are all part of it.

Fencing

Fencing is a group or combination of three related combat sports. In modern fencing, there are three disciplines: the foil, the épée, and the sabre. It is a sport of fighting with swords, according to a set of rules, to score points against an opponent when the weapon comes in contact with an opponent.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a discipline that requires balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and endurance through physical exercises. Gymnastics motions assist in the development of the arms, legs, chest, shoulders, back, and abdominal muscle groups. It is a modern sport that consists of exercises on the bars, beam, floor, and vaulting horse.

Sports Vocabulary

Karate

Karate is a martial art form and is practised as a sport that combines an oriental style of unarmed combat and self-defence with the use of the hands and feet to deliver and deflect attacks.

Judo

Judo is a combat art that emphasises throwing an opponent with fast movement and leverage. Its strategies are usually aimed towards using an opponent’s force to one’s benefit rather than outright opposing it.

Volleyball

Volleyball is a game for two teams. Generally, each team consists of six players, where a large ball is hit by hand over a high net. Both teams score points by grounding the ball on the other team’s court under standardised rules. The prime aim is to score points by moving the ball to reach the ground on the opponent’s side of the court.

Weightlifting

Lifting barbells or other big weights is referred to as weight lifting. The snatch, a single-movement lift from floor to extended position, and the clean and jerk, a two-movement lift from floor to shoulder position and from shoulders to extended position, are the two standard lifts in modern weightlifting.

Rugby

Rugby is a team sport in which players kick, carry, and pass an oval ball from hand to hand. A try is scored if the ball is grounded behind the opponents’ goal line, or points are scored when the ball is kicked in between the two goal posts and over the crossbar of the defenders’ goal.

Wrestling

Wrestling is a combat sport or activity in which a person grapples with another person and attempts to throw or keep them down on the ground, usually according to a set of rules.

High jumping

High jump is an athletic event in track and field wherein athletes must jump unassisted over a horizontal bar positioned at certain heights without causing it to move. A bar is put between two standards with a crash mat for landing in its modern, most-practised format, and the bar is elevated until only one competitor can jump it without dislodging it.

Hang gliding

Hang gliding is an air sport as well as a recreational activity wherein a pilot pilots a hang glider, a light, non-motorised, foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft. Most modern hang gliders use an aluminium alloy or composite frame wrapped in fabric aerofoil to construct a wing.

Motor racing

A motorsport involving the racing of automobiles, particularly cars for competition, is known as motor racing or auto racing. Since the invention of the vehicle, auto racing and various kinds of races have been organised, the earliest of which was recorded in 1867.

Horse racing

Horse racing is a sport in which horses and their riders, known as jockeys, compete in races on a flat track, over hurdles, or over obstacles, with a lot of money on the line.

Horseback riding

Riding a horse for pleasure or as a form of exercise is referred to as horseback riding.

Cycling

Cycling, also called biking or bicycling, is the act of riding a bicycle for the purposes of transportation, recreation, exercise, or sport. It involves both professional and amateur races that are primarily held in Asia, continental Europe, and the United States.

Running

Running or foot racing is a popular sport that can be done across a range of distances and courses and is popular in almost every period and place. Modern competitive running includes everything from sprints or dashes, which emphasise constant fast speed, to arduous long-distance and marathon races, which demand a lot of stamina.

Fishing

Fishing, also known as angling, is a sport and recreational activity that involves capturing fish in freshwater or saltwater using a hook, rod, and line. Like hunting, fishing began as a means of obtaining food for survival. Fishing as a sport, on the other hand, has a long history.

Sports Vocabulary With Images

Climbing

Climbing or sport climbing is a type of rock climbing that uses permanent anchors anchored to the rock for protection, a rope attached to the climber that is clipped into the anchors to stop a fall or ascending short lengths with a crash pad underneath for protection.

Billiards

Billiards is a table game in which you smash balls against each other or into pockets around the table with a long stick known as a cue. Only three balls are used in the game: red, white (with a spot), and another white ball (without a spot).

Pool (U.S.)

The pool is a group of cue sports that are played on a table with six pockets along the rails into which balls are dropped. Eight-ball, blackball, nine-ball, ten-ball, seven-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, and bank pool are just a few of the more well-known pool games.

Shooting

Shooting sports are a collection of competitive and recreational athletic events that involve accuracy, precision, and speed competency tests in shooting — the art of employing ranged firearms, mostly man-portable guns and bows or crossbows.

Sports Vocabulary With Pictures