Word.ws English Dictionary

May Ball

May Ball noun: an elaborate formal event held on the grounds of a college at the end of the academic year, attended by students and often involving food, alcohol, live music, fireworks, illuminations, and attractions such as amusement rides.

may ball: an elaborate formal event held on the grounds of a college at the end of the academic year,...
Image: Cantab12, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

May Ball (plural May Balls)

  1. (Cambridge University) An elaborate formal event held on the grounds of a college at the end of the academic year, attended by students and often involving food, alcohol, live music, fireworks, illuminations, and attractions such as amusement rides.

Forms of May Ball

pluralMay Balls

Origin of May Ball

So named because they take place in May Week, originally in May but now in early June.

Questions about May Ball

What does May Ball mean?
May Ball means an elaborate formal event held on the grounds of a college at the end of the academic year, attended by students and often involving food, alcohol, live music, fireworks, illuminations, and attractions such as amusement rides.
What part of speech is May Ball?
May Ball is a noun.
What is the plural of May Ball?
The plural of May Ball is May Balls.

Words near May Ball in the dictionary

  1. May 7th
  2. May and December
  3. May apple
  4. May apples
  5. may as well
  6. May Ball
  7. May Balls
  8. May Bank
  9. may be
  10. May beetle
  11. May beetles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: May Ball (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: “May Ball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/may_ball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.