Meanings
nounthe beautiful game
- capitalizedsometimesAssociation football; soccer.
After watching Saturday's final, don't you agree that soccer is still the beautiful game that Pelé called it?
1990 December 18, Fauzi Omar, “Cheers to Kedah But Not At All to Fifa”, in New Straits Times, Malaysia, page 321 more example
Amid all the fevered anticipation of this fixture, few would have expected to witness an aesthetically pleasing example of the beautiful game.
2014 November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, in The Scotsman - CanadaIce hockey.
Origin
- Portuguesejogo bonito
- Englishbeautiful game
Calque of Portuguese jogo bonito.
More words from Portuguese
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
beautiful game. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beautiful%20game
MLA
“beautiful game.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beautiful%20game. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beautiful game,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beautiful%20game.
Source: beautiful game on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.