Soccer

//ˈsɑk.ɚ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Association football. Australia, Ireland, Philippines, US, uncountable

    "The 'Varsity played Aston Villa and were beaten after a very exciting game; this was pre-eminently the most important "Socker" game played in Oxford this term."

  2. 2
    a football game in which two teams of 11 players try to kick or head a ball into the opponents' goal wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To kick the football directly off the ground, without using one's hands.

    "The rule seems to have encouraged players to soccer the ball along the ground."

Synonyms

All synonyms
association footballacrobaticsaflamerican footballassociation footballathletics

Example

More examples

"You will be able to play soccer."

Etymology

Originally British English; as an abbreviation for association football, via abbreviation assoc. + -er (suffix); earlier socker (1885), also socca (1889), with soccer attested 1888. Compare contemporary rugger, from rugby. Similarly constructed coinages from the same period include: brekker (“breakfast”), fresher (“freshman”) and footer (“football”). See Oxford -er.

Related phrases

anti-soccerbeach soccercrab soccerindoor soccersoccer ballsoccer clubsoccer dadsoccer fieldsoccer footballsoccer momsoccer mumsoccer pitch

More for "soccer"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.