Standard Lemma guide

trackball

noun · 2 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: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: T R AE1 K B AO2 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A pointing device consisting of a ball housed in a socket

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

2

noun

Meaning 2

an electronic device consisting of a rotatable ball in a housing; used to position the cursor and move images on a computer screen

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a trackball is essentially an upside-down mouse

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: electronic device

History

Etymology

From track + ball.

Across languages

Translations

14 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 軌跡球 /轨迹球 (guǐjīqiú) — computing device
  • Czech: kulový ovladač — computing device
  • Finnish: trackball — computing device
  • Finnish: ohjainpallo — computing device
  • French: trackball — computing device
  • German: Trackball — computing device
  • Greek: ιχνόσφαιρα (ichnósfaira) — computing device
  • Japanese: トラックボール (torakkubōru) — computing device
  • Korean: 트랙볼 (teuraekbol) — computing device
  • Russian: трекбо́л (trɛkból) — computing device
  • Russian: шарово́й указа́тель (šarovój ukazátelʹ) — computing device
  • Russian: шарово́й манипуля́тор (šarovój manipuljátor) — computing device
  • Swedish: trackball — computing device
  • Swedish: styrkula — computing device