passed ball

noun

: a baseball pitch not hit by the batter that passes the catcher when it should have been caught and allows a base runner to advance

one of his trick pitches shot by his catcher for a passed ball

—John Drebinger

compare wild pitch

Examples of passed ball in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Red Sox added two more runs in the eighth inning on a wild pitch and passed ball. — ABC News, 2 Aug. 2026

The first few innings weren’t pretty for either team, with errors, passed balls and misplays. — Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 18 June 2026

Washington took advantage of three walks, one intentional, and a run-scoring passed ball charged to catcher Drew Romo in the inning. — Lamond Pope, Chicago Tribune, 26 Apr. 2026

Despite falling behind by five runs on Thursday — hard contact off Ryan and a Jeffers passed ball led to three unearned runs in the second inning — the Twins didn’t wilt as bad teams often do. — Dan Hayes, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for passed ball

• aerosol
• alcohol
• arbitral
• basketball
• butanol
• cannonball
• carbinol
• cortisol
• ethanol
• fireball
• gasohol
• gossypol