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See also: soft ball and soft-ball

English

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 softball on Wikipedia
 
A softball.
 
A softball game.

Etymology

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1926: soft +‎ ball. Compare hardball.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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softball (countable and uncountable, plural softballs)

  1. (sports) A game similar to baseball but played with a larger and softer ball which can be thrown overhand or underhand.
    • 1996, Andrew Heller, Come Heller High Water, →ISBN, page 55:
      This will give you someone with whom you can trade softball complaints, which any veteran game-goer will tell you is the key to a good time.
  2. (sports) The ball used to play the sport.
  3. (by analogy) A question designed to be easy to answer.
    • 2004 October 9, James Bennett, “In a Disguised Gym, Softballs and Political Drama”, in The New York Times[1]:
      Each man got his share of softballs on Friday night. But for 90 minutes in a dressed-up basketball arena at Washington University, the two candidates were also forced to address the kind of questions they get rarely if ever on the campaign trail: from voters who doubted them and maybe did not even like them very much.

Synonyms

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Hypernyms

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ball
sport

Coordinate terms

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Descendants

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  • Finnish: softball
  • French: softball, balle molle (calque)
  • Portuguese: softball
  • Spanish: softball

Translations

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Finnish

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English softball.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈsoftboːl/, [ˈs̠o̞f.t̪bo̞ːl]
  • Rhymes: -oftboːl
  • Hyphenation(key): soft‧ball

Noun

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softball

  1. softball

Declension

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Inflection of softball (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
nominative softball softballit
genitive softballin softballien
partitive softballia softballeja
illative softballiin softballeihin
singular plural
nominative softball softballit
accusative nom. softball softballit
gen. softballin
genitive softballin softballien
partitive softballia softballeja
inessive softballissa softballeissa
elative softballista softballeista
illative softballiin softballeihin
adessive softballilla softballeilla
ablative softballilta softballeilta
allative softballille softballeille
essive softballina softballeina
translative softballiksi softballeiksi
abessive softballitta softballeitta
instructive softballein
comitative See the possessive forms below.
Possessive forms of softball (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)

French

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English softball.

Noun

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softball m (countable and uncountable, plural softballs)

  1. (sports) softball (sport): a variant of baseball
  2. (sports) softball (ball): a ball used in the sport of softball

Synonyms

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ball

Hypernyms

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sport
ball

Polish

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Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English softball.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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softball m inan (related adjective softballowy)

  1. softball (game similar to baseball but played with a larger and softer ball which can be thrown overhand or underhand)

Declension

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Derived terms

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nouns

Further reading

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Portuguese

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English softball.

Noun

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softball m (uncountable)

  1. softball (a sport similar to baseball)

Spanish

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English softball.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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softball m (uncountable)

  1. softball

Usage notes

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According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.