Pickleball Glossary
The language of the game. Court terms, shot names, rule vocabulary — what players and reviewers mean when they say "dink" or "third shot drop".
Quick reference
TermkitchenThe non-volley zone, 7 feet from the net on each side.
TermdinkA soft shot that lands in the opponent's kitchen.
Termthird shot dropA soft shot from the baseline into the opponent's kitchen — the defining technique of the game.
TermdriveA low, hard shot at the opponent's feet.
TermlobA high, looping shot over the opponent's head.
TermsmashA put-away overhead shot.
TermvolleyHitting the ball out of the air, before it bounces.
TermATPAround The Post — a rare legal shot that goes outside the net post.
TermErneA volley taken while jumping outside the sideline next to the net.
TermfaultA rule violation that ends the rally.
Full glossary
Each term below is shown in English with German as a quick reference. Full multilingual translations (FR, DE, IT, ES, PT, SE, NO, DK) ship with the llms.txt file.
- paddle
- Schläger
- kitchen (non-volley zone)
- Nicht-Volley-Zone
- dink
- Dink (weicher Aufschlag)
- third shot drop
- Dritter-Schlag-Drop
- drive
- Drive
- lob
- Lob
- smash
- Schmetterschlag
- overhead
- Overhead
- volley
- Volley
- serve
- Aufschlag
- return
- Return
- pickleball
- Pickleball
- court
- Spielfeld
- baseline
- Grundlinie
- net
- Netz
- fault
- Fehler
- side out
- Seitenwechsel
- double bounce rule
- Doppel-Aufsetzer-Regel
- ATP (Around The Post)
- ATP (um den Pfosten)
- Erne
- Erne