Colloquial Variant guide

beachball

noun · verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET: B IY1 CH B AA2 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

noun

Meaning 1

Alternative form of beach ball.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, alternative

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

verb

Meaning 2

To hang; to stop responding to user input; (used of Mac computers, where this is indicated by a spinning coloured cursor like a beach ball).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive, slang

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 3

large and light ball; for play at the seaside

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: beach ball

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: ball

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bheg-der. Proto-Germanic *bakiz Proto-West Germanic *baki Old English bæċ Middle English bache English beach Proto-Indo-European *bhel-der. Proto-Germanic *balluz Old English *beall Middle English bal English ball English beachball From beach + ball.

Across languages

Translations

2 source translations are retained for this English entry.

Finnish: rantapalloilla — slang, Mac computing: to stop responding to user input
Finnish: pelata rantapalloa — slang, Mac computing: to stop responding to user input

Word forms

Inflections and variants

beachballs — plural
beachballs — present, singular, third-person
beachballing — participle, present
beachballed — participle, past
beachballed — past

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: none provided

Related: none provided

Semantic map

Other relationships

Hypernyms: ball

Sources

Where this information comes from

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