Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Billiards |
BilliardsNoun1. Any of several games played on rectangular cloth-covered table (with cushioned edges) in which long tapering cue sticks are used to propel ivory (or composition) balls. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "billiards" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1607. (references) |
Etymology: Billiards \Bil"liards\, noun. [French expression billiard billiards, Old French billart staff, cue form playing, from bille log. See Billet stick.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Dream Interpretation | Billiards, foretell coming troubles to the dreamer. Law suits and contentions over property. Slander will get in her work to your detriment. If you see table and balls idle, deceitful comrades are undermining you. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Billiards A corrupt form of the French billard. "Autrefois, le bton avec lequel on poussait les billes"; then "la table verte sur laquelle on joue"; and, lastly, the "game itself." Similar plural forms are the games called bowls, cards, dominoes, draughts, marbles, quoits, skittles, tops, etc. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Billiards is a game consisting of billiard balls, cues, and a particular table (usually slate covered in felt, twice as long as it is wide - e.g. 4'X8', 4.5'X9', 5'X10'. There are numerous games that have the different goals of winning (e.g. making a certain number of balls, or a certain ball). Games are played by hitting a "cue ball" into an object ball with the cue stick.
In 1865, John Wesley Hyatt patented a composition material resembling ivory for a billiard ball (US50359), winning $10,000 prize from Phelan and Collender of New York City for the best substitute for ivory. This was the first U.S. patent for billiard balls.
Some billiard games by type of table:
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Billiards."
Synonyms: BilliardsSynonyms: Carom billiards, Pool. (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Amusement | Billiards, pool, pingpong, pyramids, bagatelle; bowls, skittles, ninepins, kain, American bowls; tenpins, tivoli. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Billiards |
| English words defined with "billiards": a point ♦ Balk line, bar billiards, Billiard, billiard ball, billiard hall, billiard marker, billiard parlor, billiard parlour, billiard player, billiard room, billiard saloon, break ♦ cannon, carom, cue, cue stick ♦ masse, masse shot, miscue ♦ Pin pool, pocket billiards, Pool ball, pool cue, pool stick ♦ To mark, Troco. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "billiards": Billiards, billiards meter. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Celebrity Billiards (1967) Billiards Mad (1912) Lemon Tree Billiards House (1996) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Billiards and light reading fare were among the recreational items at the Pole.Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | U.S. American National Red Cross Convalescent Hospital No. 8, Verrieres, France. : Convalescent soldiers playing billiards.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | U.S. American National Red Cross Hospital No. 21, Paighnton, England. : Patients playing cards and billiards in the recreation room.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | U.S. American National Red Cross Hospital No. 21, Paighnton, England. : Patients playing cards and billiards in the recreation room.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Playing straight billiards, Pilottown, Louisiana.Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Billiards is one sport that should not be overlooked. (references) | |
Indoor sports such as billiards and bowling are also popular with the middle and lower income class. (references) | ||
Basketball, golf, scuba diving, tennis, billiards, bowling, darts, softball, volleyball, and soccer are the sports that enjoy the highest popularity. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Billiards" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 78.41% of the time. "Billiards" is used about 88 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 78.41% | 69 | 40,280 |
| Noun (proper) | 21.59% | 19 | 80,337 |
| Total | 100.00% | 88 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "billiards": bar billiards ♦ billiards meter ♦ have a game at billiards ♦ lawn billiards ♦ pocket billiards. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "billiards": bar-billiards, throwing-billiards. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
billiards | 3,229 | buffalo billiards | 29 |
billiards candy stand | 182 | olhausen billiards | 28 |
billiards blast | 156 | billiards free online | 28 |
billiards table | 106 | billiards live | 27 |
online billiards | 106 | free billiards game | 26 |
pool and billiards | 97 | billiards yahoo | 25 |
billiards game | 95 | free billiards | 24 |
billiards and rule | 77 | billiards bungalow | 22 |
billiards bar stool | 73 | altoids billiards | 21 |
play billiards | 65 | billiards wholesale | 20 |
billiards trick shot | 58 | billiards digest | 20 |
brunswick billiards | 54 | pocket billiards | 20 |
billiards accessory | 49 | american billiard billiard billiards billiards gameroom handmade made pool pool snooker table | 20 |
billiards tip | 42 | play billiards online | 18 |
boston billiards | 40 | billiards peter | 18 |
billiards supply | 37 | bar billiards | 18 |
champion billiards | 34 | billiards game online | 17 |
connelly billiards | 32 | billiards picture | 17 |
billiards pool table | 31 | billiards magazine | 17 |
billiards cue | 31 | billiards light | 16 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "billiards"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | biljart. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | karambol (cannon, carom, pile up). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | سالة قهوة, البلياردو. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Asturian | billar. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | билярд (pills, pool). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cebuano | bilyard. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chamorro | biyát. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | '球. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | kuleèník. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | billard (billiard table). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | biljartspel, biljart. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | bilardo. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | biljardipeli. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | billards. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frisian | biljert. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | billard (billiard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | σφαιριστήριο (pool, poolroom), μπιλιάρδο (billiards is, pool). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | biliárdjáték, biliárd (billiard, carom). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Inuktitut | tugaqvik. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | biliardo (pool). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 玉突き (serial collisions), 球戯 , "ラン剤 (bill, bill broker, billboard, billionaire, blister agent, builder, building, building highjack, building maintenance, built-in, Burma), '球 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | たまつき (serial collisions), "リヤード , きゅうぎ (any ball game, old friendship, traditional ceremony), どうきゅう (same class, the same grade). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | billiardyn. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | biljard. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | biar. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | illiardsbay bilhar (billiard table). (various references) bilhard. (various references) biliard (milliard, pill). (various references) бильярд (pills, pool table). (various references) piliati. (various references) bilijar (billiard, cue, pool). (various references) billar (billiard, carom). (various references) biljard (billiard, pills, pool). (various references) บิลเลีย". (various references) bilardo (billiard, pool), bílardo. (various references) більярд. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Billiards" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bellegarde, Bellewarde, billard, billards, bulliard, Hillards. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "billiards" (pronounced bi"lyerdz) |
| 4 | -y er d z | vineyards. |
| 3 | -er d z | afterwards, backwards, bastards, biohazards, blackbirds, blizzards, buzzards, buzzwords, carryforwards, collards, cowards, cupboards, downwards, drunkards, forwards, gurnards, hazards, innards, laggards, leopards, lizards, mallards, mustards, onwards, orchards, outwards, Oxfords, placards, shepherds, standards, stewards, upwards, westwards, wizards. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-d-i-i-l-l-r-s" | |
-1 letter: billiard. | |
-2 letters: bridals, ribalds. | |
-3 letters: alibis, bialis, braids, brails, brasil, bridal, brills, disbar, drails, drills, iliads, lairds, liards, libras, lidars, ribald, sialid. | |
-4 letters: abris, alibi, arils, bails, balds, balls, bards, basil, biali, bills, birds, birls, brads, braid, brail, brill, darbs, dials, dills, dirls, drabs, drail, dribs, drill, iliad, ilial, irids, laird, lairs, lards, laris. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-d-i-i-l-l-r-s" | |
+2 letters: liberalised. | |
+4 letters: defibrillates, solderability. | |
+5 letters: defibrillators, drillabilities. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)42 69 6C 6C 69 61 72 64 73 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-... .. .-.. .-.. .. .- .-. -.. ... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000010 01101001 01101100 01101100 01101001 01100001 01110010 01100100 01110011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)B i l l i a r d s |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0042 0069 006C 006C 0069 0061 0072 0064 0073 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)367578787567847085 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
