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 and, often, Canadian 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 (as opposed to snooker), US terms are also common in the pool context in other countries in which English is at least a minority language, and US (and borrowed French) 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 ("eight-ball pool" is too easily confused with the international standardized "eight-ball"), and blackball is globally standardized by an International Olympic Committee-recognized governing body, the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA); 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. For the same reason, the glossary's information on eight-ball, nine-ball, and ten-ball draws principally on the stable WPA rules, because there are many competing amateur leagues and even professional tours with divergent rules for these games.
Foreign-language terms are generally not within the scope of this list, unless they have become an integral part of billiards terminology in English (e.g. ), or they are crucial to meaningful discussion of a game not widely known in the English-speaking world.
1–9
Also the 1. The numbered 1; in American-style pool ball sets, it is yellow.
See the One-cushion billiards main article.
See the One-pocket main article for the game.
Also the 2. The numbered 2; in American-style pool ball sets, it is blue. In some American snooker ball sets, the is numbered 2, its point value.
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.
See the Three-cushion billiards main article for the game.
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 5. The numbered 5; in American-style pool ball sets, it is orange. In some American snooker ball sets, the is numbered 5, its point value.
See the Five-pin billiards main article for the formerly Italian, now internationally standardized game; or Danish pin billiards for the five-pin traditional game of Denmark.
Also the 6. The numbered 6; in American-style pool ball sets, it is green. The 6 is the (or ) 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 (or ) 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 (or ) 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. (Pocketing the 8 early is a loss of game—unless done on the , in most rules variants.) 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 (or ) 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.
See the Goriziana main article for the game sometimes called nine-pins.
Also the 10. The numbered 10; in American-style pool ball sets, it is blue. The 10 is the (or ) 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.
Also the 11. The numbered 11; in American-style pool ball sets, it is red.
Also the 12. The numbered 12; in American-style pool ball sets, it is purple or rarely pink
Also the 13. The numbered 13; in American-style pool ball sets, it is orange.
Also the 14. The numbered 14; in American-style pool ball sets, it is green.
Also the 15. The numbered 15; in American-style pool ball sets, it is maroon, brown, or rarely tan.
In snooker, a total in which the starts with a . The break includes a counting as a and all 15 reds.
A
Used in snooker in reference to the position of the . It is above the if it is off-straight on the side of the imaginary line for a straight (e.g. "he'll want to finish above the in order to go into the and "). It is also common to use the term instead.Shamos (1993).
1. Gambling or the potential for gambling (US). 2. Lively results on a ball, usually the , from the application of . 3. Short for .
Used with an amount to signify to a tournament prize fund in addition to the amount accumulated from entry fees (e.g. "$500 added").
Also ahead session. A format in which a player has to establish a lead of an agreed number of () in order to win (e.g. in a ten-ahead race, a player wins when she/he has won ten more than the opponent). Contrast .
An imaginary line drawn from the desired path an is to be sent (usually the center of a ) and the center of the object ball.
To a ball to a ; such a ball may be said to be anchored (British: ). This term is largely obsolete balkline billiards jargon..
A type of used in carom billiards games. With one being (, British: ) to a and the second object ball just slightly away from the cushion, the is gently grazed across the face of both balls, freezing the away ball to the rail and moving the frozen ball away the same distance its partner was previously, in an identical but reversed configuration, in position to be struck again by the cue ball from the opposite side to repeat this pattern, back and forth. Compare .
A box drawn on the table in balkline billiards where a meets with the that sets the area of the enclosed as part of both adjoining spaces. Originally (and called Parker's box), it was introduced to combat the , and was increased to its current size to curtail the effectiveness of the , which was developed as a response to the original box.
The angle at which a ball approaches a , as measured from the perpendicular to the cushion.. The phrase has been in use since as early as 1653.
The angle from which a ball rebounds off a , as measured from the perpendicular to the cushion.
In snooker and pool, a situated in the of a pocket such that a/the cannot be struck directly.. Compare .
The extent to which the curves as a result of a or shot.
The ball placed at the front of a group of (i.e., toward the and furthest from the racker), and in most games situated over the table's .
In carom games, a shot in which in attempting to score, the cue ball contacts three or more , usually including both .
Used in snooker to describe the path that the must take into and out of as a result of poor , specifically coming around the off three or more , normally on a shot on the to finish on a as a result of finishing on the blue.
B
Same as (verb).
A in which if a line were drawn from the to the behind the targeted , perpendicular to that rail, the object ball would lie beyond the line with respect to the being targeted..
Same as .
Same as . See illustration at . Contrast .
The part of the where a player's is moved away from the before striking it.
Chiefly British. Same as .
A coarse woolen cloth used to cover billiard tables, usually green in colour. Sometimes called felt, based on a similarity in appearance, though very different in makeup.
The point, usually around 18 inches from the bottom of a , at which the cue will balance when resting on one hand.
1. An area defined on a billiard table by one or more . In the eponymous game of balkline billiards, there are eight balks defined by perpendicular balklines, in which only a set number of may be scored before at least one ball must leave the area.. In the earlier (and short-lived) "champions' game", there were four triangular balks, one at each corner, defined by single diagonal balklines. Not to be confused with (second definition). 2. An area defined on a billiard table, in games such as pool, snooker, English billiards and bagatelle, by a single (drawn or imaginary) that runs across the table near the () end; exactly where depends upon table type and size. This balk is where the cue ball is placed in for lead, for making the opening shot, and sometimes for other purposes, depending upon the game. This usage of "balk" is strictly technical, and rarely used in practice. In pool, this area is called the and is divided from the rest of the table by the , while in snooker, English billiards and blackball it is the somewhat differently sized and delimited , defined by the . On baulk tables, which have inside baulk, and on pool tables with a in the kitchen, the actual area from which to shoot is even smaller than the baulk or kitchen, respectively – a balk within the balk.