noun
inning
IH-nihng
noun
1
In baseball, one round in which each team gets a turn to bat, ending after three outs on each side.
"The home team scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning."
2
A chance to do or achieve something.
"He finally got his inning to prove himself at the new job."
How to Use Inning
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishOne of the numbered rounds that make up a baseball game — American English typically uses "inning" for one round and "innings" as the plural.
UK vs US
In cricket (mainly UK/Commonwealth), "innings" is used for both singular and plural; in baseball (US), "inning" is singular and "innings" is plural.
Common pairings
ninth inning
bottom of the inning
extra innings
Word Forms
innings plural
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The home team scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth _____.
Etymology
A back-formation from innings, mistakenly treated as if the -s were a plural ending rather than part of the original word.