"ballpoint" meaning in English

See ballpoint in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav Forms: ballpoints [plural]
Etymology: From ball + point. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|ball|point}} ball + point Head templates: {{en-noun}} ballpoint (plural ballpoints)
  1. Ellipsis of ballpoint pen; the nib thereof, containing the ball. Wikidata QID: Q160137 Tags: abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis Alternative form of: ballpoint pen (extra: the nib thereof, containing the ball) Synonyms: ball pen, ballpen, biro Hypernyms: pen, implement
    Sense id: en-ballpoint-en-noun-en:Q160137 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 83 17 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 91 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 92 8
  2. (sewing) A kind of needle with a rounded tip.
    Sense id: en-ballpoint-en-noun-au1OgmPD Categories (other): Sewing Topics: business, manufacturing, sewing, textiles

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ball",
        "3": "point"
      },
      "expansion": "ball + point",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From ball + point.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ballpoints",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "ballpoint (plural ballpoints)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "extra": "the nib thereof, containing the ball",
          "word": "ballpoint pen"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "83 17",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "92 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              17,
              26
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Have you seen my ballpoint? I need to sign this form, and a felt-tip won't make carbons.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Ellipsis of ballpoint pen; the nib thereof, containing the ball."
      ],
      "hypernyms": [
        {
          "word": "pen"
        },
        {
          "word": "implement"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-ballpoint-en-noun-en:Q160137",
      "links": [
        [
          "ballpoint pen",
          "ballpoint pen#English:_Q160137"
        ],
        [
          "nib",
          "nib#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "ball",
          "ball#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:Q160137"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "ball pen"
        },
        {
          "word": "ballpen"
        },
        {
          "word": "biro"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "abbreviation",
        "alt-of",
        "ellipsis"
      ],
      "wikidata": [
        "Q160137"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sewing",
          "orig": "en:Sewing",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A kind of needle with a rounded tip."
      ],
      "id": "en-ballpoint-en-noun-au1OgmPD",
      "links": [
        [
          "sewing",
          "sewing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "needle",
          "needle"
        ],
        [
          "rounded",
          "rounded"
        ],
        [
          "tip",
          "tip"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(sewing) A kind of needle with a rounded tip."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "manufacturing",
        "sewing",
        "textiles"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f1/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f1/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ballpoint"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ball",
        "3": "point"
      },
      "expansion": "ball + point",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From ball + point.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ballpoints",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "ballpoint (plural ballpoints)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "extra": "the nib thereof, containing the ball",
          "word": "ballpoint pen"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English ellipses",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              17,
              26
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Have you seen my ballpoint? I need to sign this form, and a felt-tip won't make carbons.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Ellipsis of ballpoint pen; the nib thereof, containing the ball."
      ],
      "hypernyms": [
        {
          "word": "pen"
        },
        {
          "word": "implement"
        }
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ballpoint pen",
          "ballpoint pen#English:_Q160137"
        ],
        [
          "nib",
          "nib#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "ball",
          "ball#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:Q160137"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "ball pen"
        },
        {
          "word": "ballpen"
        },
        {
          "word": "biro"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "abbreviation",
        "alt-of",
        "ellipsis"
      ],
      "wikidata": [
        "Q160137"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Sewing"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A kind of needle with a rounded tip."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sewing",
          "sewing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "needle",
          "needle"
        ],
        [
          "rounded",
          "rounded"
        ],
        [
          "tip",
          "tip"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(sewing) A kind of needle with a rounded tip."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "manufacturing",
        "sewing",
        "textiles"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f1/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f1/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-ballpoint.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ballpoint"
}

Download raw JSONL data for ballpoint meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.