Watching Sports Can Boost Your Vocabulary

The sports phrases most commonly used by announcers aren’t the only things we learn through repetitive listening. Words we are first exposed to via spelling and vocabulary tests in school or on college board exams are often reinforced by watching sports. Though fairly common, these aren’t words we’d use in everyday life unless we talk about sports every day. It’s also possible to learn a few words for the first time while watching a ballgame. Below are 20 examples to support the idea that watching sports can boost your vocabulary or reinforce words you already know. We all know that if you don’t hear or use these words repeatedly, you might lose them. The challenge for those of us without an announcer or sports talk show host game in our ear every day is to apply them in daily conversations. How many of these words have you used or heard during a non-sports conversation?

1) “BONA FIDE”

My recollection of hearing this word (it’s actually two words) for the first time is while watching a basketball game. The announcer described one of the players as a “bona fide scoring threat.” We’ve all heard this one in some context regardless of our sport of choice as another way of saying “genuine” but it’s unlikely we’d use it at home or at work. We’ve also seen this word misspelled as one word: “bonafied.”

2) “CATALYST”

In sports language, the player who leads his team to a victory, particularly a comeback victory, is considered the catalyst. The opponent would label him a troublemaker, a problem, a pest, and other names we won’t repeat. Amazing how competition makes us see the same person in different ways.

3) “CONSUMMATE”

Announcers tend to use the adjective form of this word when talking about a former player or a veteran. The media often uses phrases like “the consummate team player” or “the consummate professional.”

The next time you go to the barbershop, tip the barber, then call him “the consummate professional” and check out the reaction.

4) “DISCOMBOBULATED”

This word comes from the same family as the hideous phrase, “they can’t get out of their own way.” A team performing as if it hadn’t practiced, with players out of position, looking frazzled, pointing at each other after mistakes, and “giving their coach gray hairs” is often described as looking discombobulated.

Try telling your spouse you forgot to buy paper towels because you became discombobulated when you saw the long lines at the supermarket, then record the response.

5) “DONNYBROOK”

I remember first hearing the word “donnybrook” as a teenager watching a hockey game where a huge fight broke out and guys paired off and exchanged punches. Then the benches emptied, but it didn’t appear anyone was looking to break up any fights and were instead looking for a fight partner. This was before the league started ejecting and suspending players for coming off the bench to join brawls on the ice. Baseball has fights, but usually there only a few combatants while everyone else plays peacemaker.

6) “ENIGMA”

This one isn’t used so much anymore, but it used to refer to a player who would confound front office types and coaches by not performing up to expectations, or just being inconsistent.

Without provocation, call one of your underachieving friends an…

Never mind.

7) “FLAGRANT”

The flagrant foul rules in the NBA have made this a common word among basketball fans, especially since the instant replay was introduced. Difficult to find a proper use for it in everyday life, however, unless you ride the New York City subways where getting hit with a flagrant elbow is a given. I do remember watching one of the city’s streetball tournaments a few summers back where a player committed a hard foul. One inebriated spectator starts yelling at the referee, “Hey, that’s a fragrant foul! That’s a fragrant foul!” And he kept repeating it.

The folks nearby had a field day with that one.

8) “FORMIDABLE”

This word can usually be heard early in the college basketball or football season after a team from a power conference beats up on few lower-division schools. The announcer will then share the upcoming schedule which includes, in his words, “more formidable competition.”

Sort of an admission that the earlier games should never have been scheduled.

9) “INFLUX”

This word can be heard at the beginning of every sports season, particularly if a team adds several new players during the off-season as in “an influx of promising young talent” or an “influx of veterans.”

In yet another quirk of the language, when a bunch of players leave it’s not referred to as an outflux (not a word) or even an efflux (is a word) but an exodus.

10) “INTEGRAL”

I don’t use this word, an adjective used to describe a player indispensable to his team. I find it difficult to pronounce. Heard one prominent basketball pundit attempt to use the word, but instead uttered, “He’s an intricate part of this team.”

In a twisted kind of way, I felt better when he said that.

11) “LEGACY”

In the sports world, this word is really about the accomplishments of players at the highest levels of their sport. These player legacies, which are subjective, are part of the endless exercise aimed at determining the Greatest Of All Time in any sport. To be fair, any of the relative handful of players in a position to earn a living in his or her sport of choice has created a legacy somewhere.

Some of the fiercest arguments in sports are centered around player legacies.

12) “MARRED”

“The game was marred by a bench-clearing brawl (donnybrook).” The game wasn’t really marred, but there has to be an excuse to make an incident not involving game action the central focus, especially in sports like baseball and basketball where brawls are less frequent.

Tell a co-worker your commute was marred by a brawl on the subway and watch the reaction.

13) “PIVOTAL”

I can no longer hear the word pivotal without also hearing “Game Five.” It appears you can’t say one without the other, especially in a best-of-seven playoff series tied after four games. All playoff games are pivotal, but you never hear an announcer say “Welcome to pivotal Game One.” So we can only conclude the word is used to describe a game that will put its loser within one game of being eliminated.

14) “PLETHORA”

Describes, for example, a team with an abundance of skilled players at the same position, as in a plethora of starting pitching. To strengthen the point, this word is often preceded by the word “veritable.”

So while you might be tempted to tell your boss that you already have a veritable plethora of deadlines to meet in addition to the one he or she just handed you, it’s probably not a good idea.

15) “PROLIFIC”

Whenever I see this word, Wilt Chamberlain immediately comes to mind. His name is the first one I can remember being linked to this word, as he was quite the prolific scorer in his day. Ditto Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, and others. I don’t hear the word often, but its use is limited to describing the top scorers in basketball history. As is the case with many of these words, I have never used the word prolific in everyday conversation or even when talking sports.

16) “QUINTESSENTIAL”

Experienced sports viewers have heard this word hundreds of times when a top player is being discussed as some sort of prototype at his or her position. I have never used this word in a sentence, and I’m not about to start now. I’m tired just from typing it. Spellcheck rocks sometimes.

Never use this word to describe someone you know. They’ll think you’re not being sincere.

17) “STAVE”

Us mortal folks try to stave off work deadlines, bill collectors, and unwanted visitors. Sports teams try to stave off elimination from tournaments. Particularly in sports where playoffs are not of the single-game elimination type. A team one loss away from away, without fail, will be introduced as “looking to stave off elimination.”

So we’re stuck. Game Five of a best-of seven series is either pivotal Game Five if the series is tied at 2 apiece, or the team down 3-1 will be looking to stave off elimination. Watch a Game Five of a best-of-seven series and you’re almost guaranteed to hear one of those words.

18) “UNDAUNTED”

This describes the player or team that doesn’t get rattled if the opponent gets the better of them for a stretch of a game and remains composed until they can regain control of the action. They’ll just come back at you instead of getting discouraged. They have a certain calm about them. Might even have “ice water in their veins.”

19) “VAUNTED”

Mostly used to describe a new player who comes into a league with high expectations. The word “touted” is also used here. One prominent basketball pundit once got caught between the two words and applied both at once, referring to a player as “highly taunted.” As unforgiving as some fans can be at times, he probably wasn’t lying.

20) “-ESQUE”

Yeah, we had to throw a suffix in here. This suffix was overused after the Michael Jordan era was over. Announcers would describe a clutch shot or a player move that included some hangtime as “Jordanesque.” Those kinds of comparisons are always dangerous, seldom fair, and speak to the long-running penchant of experts to recycle or even reincarnate former players. The suffix also doesn’t flow well with all names. “Bobanovic-esque” and “Ntilikina-esque” don’t quite work.

The next time you play pickup ball with friends and one blocks a shot, tell them, “Hey man, that was Koncak-esque!”

See what kind of looks you get. Prediction: Older players will think you’re nuts, younger players won’t know who you’re talking about.

Word power through sports. Who knew?