Word.ws English Dictionary

ball drop

ball drop noun: a world-famous tradition when a large, illuminated crystal ball descends a flagpole from midnight to mark the new year; most commonly associated with the New Year's Eve event in New York's Times Square; a ritual inspired by maritime time ball signals that began in 1907 and has evolved into a massive global event with music and sizable crowds.

ball drop: a world-famous tradition when a large, illuminated crystal ball descends a flagpole from midnight...
Image: Alex Lozupone, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

ball drop (plural ball drops)

  1. A world-famous tradition when a large, illuminated crystal ball descends a flagpole from midnight to mark the new year; most commonly associated with the New Year's Eve event in New York's Times Square; a ritual inspired by maritime time ball signals that began in 1907 and has evolved into a massive global event with music and sizable crowds.
    • In 1907, New Yorkers saw their first “ball drop” celebration.2000, Lyndra Jones, Kids Around the World Celebrate! The Best Feasts and Festivals from Many Lands, page 28
    • Jeanie, the media expert, couldn’t help but notice that the ball drop was different this year. She could tell from the camera angles that the crowd was much, much smaller than in the past.2014 March 24, Glen Tate, 299 Days: The War Book 299

Forms of ball drop

pluralball drops

Questions about ball drop

What does ball drop mean?
Ball drop means a world-famous tradition when a large, illuminated crystal ball descends a flagpole from midnight to mark the new year; most commonly associated with the New Year's Eve event in New York's Times Square; a ritual inspired by maritime time ball signals that began in 1907 and has evolved into a massive global event with music and sizable crowds.
What part of speech is ball drop?
Ball drop is a noun.
What is the plural of ball drop?
The plural of ball drop is ball drops.

Words near ball drop in the dictionary

  1. ball clubs
  2. ball cock
  3. ball cocks
  4. ball de bastons
  5. ball down
  6. ball drop
  7. ball fern
  8. ball ferns
  9. ball field
  10. ball fields
  11. ball flower

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ball drop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “ball drop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ball_drop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.