Other forms: teams, teamed, teaming
A team is a group of people working or playing together towards one goal. A football team, the design team, work as a team.
In British English it can take a plural verb — the team are travelling — because it is a group of people; American English keeps the singular. Team up means to join forces. Note team player, meaning somebody who cooperates; team building, which almost nobody enjoys; and that there is no I in team is one of the most quoted and least loved sentences in the language.
1nounteamA group working or playing together towards one goal.~98%
“She was picked to play for the school football team this year.”
2verbjoinTo join forces with somebody.~2%
“They teamed up with a rival and beat everybody.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 13 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
team is a working group.
Old English team meant a set of draught animals harnessed together, and before that offspring or a brood. The root idea is a line of animals pulling — the same root as teem, meaning to give birth or swarm.
Proto-Indo-European
*dewk-
Proto-Germanic
*taumaz — that which draws or pulls
Proto-West Germanic
*taum
Old English
tēam — child-bearing, offspring, brood, set of draught animals
Middle English
tem
English, today
team
Built from
From Middle English tem, teem, teme, from Old English tēam (“child-bearing, offspring, brood, set of draught animals”), from Proto-West Germanic taum, from Proto-Germanic taumaz (“that which draws or pulls”), from Proto-Germanic taugijaną, tugōną, teuhōną, teuhaną (“to lead, bring, pull, draw”), from Proto-Indo-European dewk- (“to pull, lead”). Cognate with Scots team, teem (“a chain, harness”), stq Toom (“bridle; breeding”), West Frisian team (“bridle, team”), Dutch toom (“bridle, reins, flock of birds”), German Low German Toom (“bridle”), {{cog|de|
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA