Glossary of cue sports terms
The following is a glossary of traditional English-language terms used in the three overarching cue sports disciplines: carom billiards referring to the various games played on a billiard table without ; pool, which denotes a host of games played on a table with six pockets; and snooker, played on a large pocket table, and which has a sport culture unto itself distinct from pool. There are also games such as English billiards that include aspects of multiple disciplines.
Definitions and language
The term is sometimes used to refer to all of the cue sports, to a specific class of them, or to specific ones such as English billiards; this article uses the term in its most generic sense unless otherwise noted.The labels "British" and "UK" as applied to entries in this glossary refer to terms originating in the UK and also used in countries that were fairly recently part of the British Empire and/or are part of the Commonwealth of Nations, as opposed to US terminology. The terms "American" or "US" as applied here refer generally to North American usage. However, due to the predominance of US-originating terminology in most internationally competitive pool, US terms are also common in the pool context in other countries in which English is at least a minority language, and US terms predominate in carom billiards. Similarly, British terms predominate in the world of snooker, English billiards, and blackball, regardless of the players' nationalities.
The term "blackball" is used in this glossary to refer to both blackball and eight-ball pool as played in the UK, as a shorthand. Blackball was chosen because it is less ambiguous, and blackball is globally standardized by an International Olympic Committee-recognized governing body, the World Pool-Billiard Association ; meanwhile, its ancestor, eight-ball pool, is largely a folk game, like North American, and to the extent that its rules have been codified, they have been done so by competing authorities with different rulesets.
Foreign-language terms are generally not within the scope of this list, unless they have become an integral part of billiards terminology in English, or they are crucial to meaningful discussion of a game not widely known in the English-speaking world.
1–9
Also the 3. The numbered 3; in American-style pool ball sets, it is red. In some American snooker ball sets, the is numbered 3, its point value.
Also the 4. The numbered 4; in American-style pool ball sets, it is purple or rarely pink. In some American snooker ball sets, the is numbered 4, its point value.
Also the 6. The numbered 6; in American-style pool ball sets, it is green. The 6 is the in a game of six-ball. It is the last ball that must be pocketed, after the remaining five object balls have been pocketed, or may be pocketed early to win the game so long as the lowest-numbered ball on the table is struck before the 6. In other games, such as eight-ball, the 6 is simply one of the regular object balls. In some American snooker ball sets, the is numbered 6, its point value.
Also the 7. The numbered 7; in American-style pool ball sets, it is maroon, brown, or rarely tan. Some variants, for the seven-ball game, are brown with a black or white stripe. The 7 is the in a game of seven-ball. It is the last ball that must be pocketed, after the remaining six object balls have been pocketed, or may be pocketed early to win the game so long as the lowest-numbered ball on the table is struck before the 7. In other games, such as eight-ball, the 7 is simply one of the regular object balls. In some American snooker ball sets, the is numbered 7, its point value.
Also the 8. The numbered 8; in both American- and British-style pool ball sets, it is black, though some of the latter use an unnumbered. The 8 is the in a game of eight-ball and related games. It is the last ball that must be, after the of seven belonging to the player who is shooting for the 8. In other games, such as nine-ball and straight pool, the 8 is simply another object ball. Due to its striking colouration and regular use as a money ball, it is commonly used as a symbol in popular culture.
Also the 9. The numbered 9; in American-style pool ball sets, it is yellow. The 9 is the in a game of nine-ball. It is the last ball that must be pocketed, after the remaining eight object balls have been pocketed, or may be pocketed early to win the game so long as the lowest-numbered ball on the table is struck before the 9. In other games, such as eight-ball, the 9 is simply one of the regular object balls.
Also the 10. The numbered 10; in American-style pool ball sets, it is blue. The 10 is the in a game of ten-ball. It is the last ball that must be pocketed, after the remaining nine object balls have been pocketed, or may be pocketed early to win the game so long as the lowest-numbered ball on the table is struck before the 10, and the 10 ball and pocket are. In other games, such as eight-ball, the 10 is simply one of the regular object balls.
A
A format in which a player has to establish a lead of an agreed number of in order to win. Contrast.
The ball placed at the front of a group of , and in most games situated over the table's.