innings

I1N1N1I1N1G2S1
UK/ˈɪn.ɪŋz/

noun

One side's (from when the first player begins to bat, until the last player is out) or individual player's turn to bat or the runs scored during those durations.

Less commonScrabble 8

Meanings

innings1

nouninnings (plural innings or (rare) inningses)

plural rare inningses

  1. ball gamesOne side's (from when the first player begins to bat, until the last player is out) or individual player's turn to bat or the runs scored during those durations.
  2. A comparable period of play in croquet or roque.
  3. UKThe time during which any party is in possession of power, or enjoying good luck, etc.; a turn of any kind.
  4. UKeuphemisticA person's lifespan.

    Like father, like son. Sixty-eight. Not such a bad innings, really, when the old man was gone at fifty-three.

    2012, Peter Fitzpatrick, The Two Frank Thrings, Monash University Publishing, →ISBN, page 523
    4 more examples

    Forty-odd. That's a better innings than Mozart's thirty-five. Only a moderate knock perhaps in an era brimming with space age technology, and transplants, and artificial hips etcet, but still higher than Mozart's.

    1994, John Lehmann, Alan Ross, Sebastian Barker, The London Magazine

    My mother-in-law died at 89 years of age, while sad and as you might expect, we used the phrase “she had a good innings”.

    2007, Roger F. Peters, Police Under Pressure: A Donkey on the Edge, Roger Peters, →ISBN, page 22

    He was the first of my grandparents to die but none of them made it much past seventy, although that was very much looked on as 'a decent innings' in early-seventies England.

    2009, Mark Radcliffe, Thank You for the Days: A Boy's Own Adventures in Radio and Beyond, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

    You can only say, she had a good innings, so many times. I suppose seventy nine isn't so bad. It's a damn sight more than I can expect.

    2010, Jacqueline James M P, An Ignoble End, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 79

innings2

noun
  1. pluralplural of inning

Origin

From the old verb inn (“to house corn”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Hindi पारी
  • पारी (pārī)a period of play in cricket
Polish runda
  • rundaa period of play in cricket

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with innings

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

innings. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/innings

MLA

“innings.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/innings. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “innings,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/innings.

Source: innings on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.