technical foul

noun

basketball

: a foul that is assessed to a player, coach, or team typically for unsportsmanlike conduct (such as arguing with an official or taunting an opponent) and does not usually involve physical contact with an opponent while the ball is in play

called also technical

compare personal foul

Examples of technical foul in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

What Chris Paul also knew was that a second delay-of-game warning would result in a technical foul, which meant a free throw for the Thunder, potentially cutting the lead to one point and changing the shot his team needed to extend the game from a three-pointer to a two. —Hanif Abdurraqib, New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2025

After a review, Bane received a technical foul — his second of the season for throwing a ball at an out-of-bounds opponent. —MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Dec. 2025

Bane, in addition to being assessed a technical foul in the moment, was fined $35,000, the NBA announced in a press release. —Ryan Canfield, FOXNews.com, 9 Dec. 2025

Bane, 27, was assessed a technical foul for his role in the incident, the league said. —Anna Lazarus Caplan, PEOPLE, 9 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1896, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for technical foul

• afoul
• wildfowl
• foule
• fowl
• growl
• howl
• jowl
• owl
• prowl
• scowl
• waterfowl