BATS Synonyms: 354 Similar and Opposite Words

bats 1 of 3

adjective

ˈbats

as in psychotic

unable to think in a clear or sensible way by film's end it's obvious that faded movie star Norma Desmond is completely bats

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

bats

2 of 3

noun

plural of bat

as in hits

a hard strike with a part of the body or an instrument a sharp bat with a rolled-up newspaper and that fly was a goner

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as in canes

a heavy rigid stick used as a weapon or for punishment riot policemen armed with bats and tear gas

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bats

3 of 3

verb

present tense third-person singular of bat

as in knocks

to deliver a blow to (someone or something) usually in a strong vigorous manner batted the lamp off the table with one strike

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as in licks

to strike repeatedly batted the piñata until it finally broke open

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as in roams

to move about from place to place aimlessly on Sunday afternoons we'd pile into Father's car and bat around the countryside

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of bats

Noun

The quality of at-bats was apparent as the Royals won their second game in a row. —

Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 19 June 2026 Oklahoma’s bats remained scorching hot, racking up 12 hits - including five more home runs - and got a quality start from freshman Nick Wesloski. —

Hunter Delauder, AJC.com, 18 June 2026 No bags, glass or metal water bottles, bats/batons, bicycles or scooters, chairs or coolers will be allowed in the event. —

Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 18 June 2026 Garvey said the bats are harder, the balls are livelier, the pitchers throw harder (more velocity means more pop for batters) and launch angles are talked about more in baseball than at Cape Canaveral. —

Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2026 Outfielder Lawrence Butler struck out swinging in all four of his at-bats. —

Sean Campbell, Sacbee.com, 18 June 2026 The beavers’ work has also created a mosaic of different habitats, encouraging other animals to flock to the site, including birds, butterflies, bats and even freshwater shrimp and fish. —

Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 18 June 2026 Before joining Baltimore earlier this season, Wilson had accrued more than 215 big-league at-bats with the Phillies across exactly 100 games. —

Peter Chawaga, Forbes.com, 18 June 2026 Major League Baseball breaks out pink bats every Mother’s Day for breast cancer awareness. —

David K. Li, NBC news, 11 June 2026

Verb

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound senior first baseman not only starts but also bats cleanup for the Wildcats, who have returned to the state semifinals. —

Steve Reaven, Chicago Tribune, 11 June 2026 With the light nearly gone — the UMass Dartmouth field doesn’t have lights — Callahan silenced the Raiders bats one more time and this eventually led to the decision to pause the game. —

Jack Murray, Boston Herald, 10 June 2026 That Ohtani guy bats leadoff for the Dodgers, after all. —

Andrew Baggarly, New York Times, 5 June 2026 Schmidt, who bats and throws left, led off the bottom of the seventh with a sharp single to right field. —

Steve Fryer, Oc Register, 27 May 2026 Inés has been raised in a world of strange ellipses, and hardly bats an eye when the hotel bartender goes quiet after someone mentions his missing brother, but Hanna (Maia Rae Domagala) is a different story. —

David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 May 2026 Jordan Woolery, who bats behind her at third in the lineup, has 107 RBIs and was the Big Ten Player of the Year. —

ABC News, 10 May 2026 Altuve bats fifth For the first time in his career, Altuve started a regular-season game batting in the fifth spot in the lineup. —

Matt Kawahara, Houston Chronicle, 30 Apr. 2026 Peralta then was replaced by left-hander Brooks Raley, and Kelly was sent up to hit for Moisés Ballesteros, a rookie who bats from the left side. —

CBS News, 18 Apr. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for bats

Adjective

The drugs brought on psychotic episodes that were destructive, and when his son was about 20, the family made the difficult decision to ask Sean to leave the house.

— Madeline Mitchell, USA Today, 20 June 2026
In the second episode, Tom spends a night in the local inn, and ends up in a crawl space with the ghost of a psychotic killer clown.

— Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 18 June 2026