Standard Lemma guide

pong

name · noun · verb · 8 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

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /pɒŋ/
  • General-American: /pɔŋ/
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒŋ
  • CMU ARPABET: P AO1 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

name

Meaning 1

An early video game from Atari, resembling ping-pong, in which two players control paddles and attempt to intercept a ball.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: video-games

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A stench, a bad smell.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang

Examples

  • 1992, Bryce Courtenay, Tandia, Volume 1, 2011, Read How You Want, page 109, She sniffed, squiffing up her nose. ‘What a pong! Do they all smell like this?’
  • 2000, Susan Sallis, 2011, unnumbered page, ‘I see what you mean about the pong. I couldn′t smell it on myself but I can smell it on you!’

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A packet sent in reply to a ping, thereby indicating the presence of a host.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Alternative form of pung.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, alternative

Topics: board-games, games, mahjong

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

To stink, to smell bad.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang

Examples

  • 1997, Taufiq Ismail, David M. E. Roskies (translator and editor), Stop Thief!, Black Clouds Over the Isle of Gods and Other Modern Indonesian Short Stories, page 97, On she walked at a crawling pace, ponging of sweat, drops of mucus and blood falling between her feet.
  • 2009, Susan Brocker, Saving Sam, HarperCollins, New Zealand, unnumbered page, The place ponged, like the smell of stale cat pee.
  • 2011, Victor Pemberton, We′ll Sing at Dawn, 2012, eBook, Headline Publishing, unnumbered page, [...] and this evening, Eileen Perkins′s daughter Rita ponged with the smell of cheap carbolic soap, after a late-afternoon visit to the public baths down Hornsey Road.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To deliver a line of a play in an arch, suggestive or unnatural way, so as to draw undue attention to it.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: derogatory, slang

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, theater

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

verb

Meaning 7

To invent a line of dialogue when one has forgotten the actual line.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive, slang

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, theater

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

noun

Meaning 8

an unpleasant smell

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: niff

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: malodor, malodour, stench, stink, reek, fetor, foetor, mephitis

History

Etymology

Marketing coinage, from ping-pong.

Probably from Romani pan (“to stink”).

From ping, via the pairing of ping pong.

Across languages

Translations

16 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: воня (vonja) — bad smell
  • Czech: smrad — bad smell
  • Czech: puch — bad smell
  • Finnish: lemu — bad smell
  • Finnish: löyhkä — bad smell
  • Polish: smród — bad smell
  • Polish: fetor — bad smell
  • Portuguese: fedor — bad smell
  • Spanish: tufo — bad smell
  • Turkish: koku — bad smell
  • Bulgarian: воня (vonja) — to stink
  • Finnish: lemuta — to stink
  • Finnish: löyhkätä — to stink
  • Polish: cuchnąć — to stink
  • Polish: śmierdzieć — to stink
  • Turkish: kokmak — to stink