Word
billiards
Phoneticsbil·liards
US/ˈbɪɫjɝdz/
UK/bˈɪlɪədz/
Definitions
01general cue sports
n. a general name for games played on a table with balls and a cue, including pool and snooker.
n. a generic term for any of various games played on a cloth-covered table with balls and a cue. Uncountable in this sense.
“The hotel has a game room where guests can play billiards or table tennis.”
“The student union provided several tables for billiards, though most undergraduates preferred playing eight-ball pool.”
American English
Usage
Treated as a singular noun despite the 's' ending.
Synonyms
02specific three-ball game
n. a specific game played with only three balls (two white and one red) on a large table.
n. a specific cue sport played with three balls on a pocketed table, distinct from pool or snooker. Uncountable in this sense.
“My grandfather spent every Saturday afternoon at the club playing billiards with his friends.”
“Unlike snooker, which uses twenty-two balls, English billiards is played with only three, requiring a different tactical approach to scoring.”
British English
Usage
Treated as a singular noun despite the 's' ending.
Synonyms
Etymology
From French billard, originally referring to the wooden cue stick, diminutive of Old French bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“large tree, tree trunk”)), from Proto-Celtic belyos (“tree”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰolh₃yos (“leaf”), from bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Related words
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/billiards