pallacanestro

basketball

noun pahl-lah-kah-NEH-stroh Rare

Usage Note

Pallacanestro is the Italian compound word for basketball: palla (ball) + canestro (basket). It is feminine — la pallacanestro — despite the -o ending on canestro, because the governing element is palla. Informally Italians also use the loan word il basket (masculine). The plural is invariable: le partite di pallacanestro.

Examples

"Mio fratello gioca a pallacanestro ogni weekend."

Natural Translation

My brother plays basketball every weekend.

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