Quidditch
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A fictional ball game played between two teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks, using four balls and six elevated ring-shaped goals. uncountable
"Maybe you wish your parents were smarter or funnier or richer or better looking, but you might as well wish for a spot on the local Quidditch team."
- 2 Alternative letter-case form of Quidditch. alt-of, uncountable
"We can disinfect headsets and teach a group of fifth graders how to play library quidditch."
- 3 a real-life version of the game of Quidditch from the Harry Potter series wordnet
- 4 Muggle quidditch broadly, uncountable
- 5 a game played on broomsticks in the Harry Potter series wordnet
Example
More examples"Interestingly, Hogwarts Quidditch players are allowed to use whatever broomsticks they like or their sponsors can afford, despite the fact that more expensive brooms often confer great (and arguably unfair) advantages in speed and manoeuvrability."
Etymology
Coined by British author J. K. Rowling in her 1997 book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In Quidditch Through the Ages, Rowling gives some etymological information, hinting that the word evolved from Queerditch (compound of queer + ditch), with some spelling variation as would be expected in real life Middle English, namely Kwidditch, Kweerditch.
Related phrases
More for "quidditch"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.