handball

nounB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,292 of 15,258mostly written

Handball is a team game of throwing a ball into a goal. Play handball, a handball court, the handball final.

The European game is seven a side on an indoor court and is enormously popular in Germany and Scandinavia, though barely played in Britain. American handball is a different game entirely, hitting a ball against a wall. In football, handball is the offence.

Definitions of handball

1nounhandballA team game of throwing a ball into a goal.B1+
“In handball, players throw the ball past the goalkeeper instead of kicking it.”

handball is a game.

Where it comes from

Hand plus ball. Several unrelated games have taken the name over the centuries.

From hand + ball. From hand + ball.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sports & Games Played

Practise this word

handball in the wild

Modern handball is played on a court of 40 by 20 metres, with a goal in the middle of each end.
Handball
The sport is usually played indoors, but outdoor variants exist in the forms of field handball, Czech handball (which were more common in the past) and beach handball.
Handball
The European Women's Handball Championship is the official competition for senior women's national handball teams of Europe, and takes place every two years.
European Women's Handball Championship
Field handball was introduced for men at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, but dropped after that.
Handball at the Summer Olympics
At the 1952 Olympics, field handball was a demonstration sport. (Indoor) handball was introduced for men at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
Handball at the Summer Olympics

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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