Pickleball terms and slang, A to Z

The words you’ll hear most at a pickleball court are the kitchen, the 7-foot strip on each side of the net where you can’t volley; a dink, the soft shot that drops into it; a side out, when the serve passes to the other team; and the three-number score call that starts every doubles game at 0–0–2.

Where the 2026 USA Pickleball rulebook defines a term, in its section 2, the definition is quoted under the term. Plenty of what players say isn’t in there: the rulebook never uses the words kitchen, dink or lob, and it has no let. If you’re about to play your first game, how to play pickleball takes the words you need in the order they come up.

A

Ace

A serve the receiver can’t return, so the serving team wins the rally without another shot. They’re rare at the top level: in a study of 15 PPA women’s singles semifinals and finals from 2023, not one serve was an ace (Prieto-Lage et al., 2025).

ATP (around the post)

A return hit around the outside of the net post instead of over the net, usually off a ball that has bounced on your side and kept going wide. It’s legal at any height, since rule 13.C says only A ball may be returned around the outside of the net post.

B

Banger

A player who drives almost every ball, hard and flat, rather than dinking or dropping. In The Dink’s words, Someone who only drives the ball is often called a ‘banger.’ Our strategy guide’s advice on beating one starts with letting the long drives go out. Where pros split is on pace, some slowing the game down and others counterattacking with a short, compact swing.

Bert

An Erne hit on your partner’s side, where you cross in front of your partner and volley from outside their sideline, beside the kitchen. In The Dink’s slang guide it’s The same as an erne, but conducted on your partner’s side of the court. The same kitchen rules apply.

Body bag

Hitting an opponent with the ball on purpose, as an attacking shot. The Dink calls it a shot that successfully targets your opponent’s body; a body shot. It’s legal, and the body is one of the targets pickleball.com suggests for a speed-up.

C

Carry

Catching the ball on the paddle face and slinging it, instead of hitting it so it bounces off. It’s a fault: rule 12.C says A player must not catch or carry a ball on their paddle during a rally. A ball that touches your paddle twice in one continuous swing is a double hit, which is usually legal.

Rulebook, section 2: Hitting the ball in such a way that it does not bounce away from the paddle but is carried along on the face of the paddle.

Chainsaw serve

A serve with spin put on the ball by the server’s fingers as they release it. It’s no longer legal, though spin from the paddle still is (rule 7.B.2), and the serving guide sets out what the two legal serves allow.

Cutthroat

A game for three: one player against the other two, everyone keeping their own score. It isn’t in the rulebook and versions vary, so agree on yours first; there’s a common one in how to play with three people.

D

Dink

A soft shot hit from at or near the kitchen line that drops into the other team’s kitchen, low enough that they can’t attack it. Good players trade dinks until somebody hits one too high, and that’s the ball to speed up. If yours keep popping up, start with the dinking drills.

Double bounce

The ball bouncing twice on your side before you return it, which is one of the common faults. Many players also say double bounce rule for the two-bounce rule, which is about something else.

Rulebook, section 2: When the ball bounces twice on one end of the net before it is returned.

Double hit

The ball touching your paddle twice on one shot. It’s legal if it was one swing, since rule 10.D says Balls can be hit more than once, but the stroke must be continuous in a single direction by one player. If you and your partner both hit it, it’s a fault.

Rulebook, section 2: Hitting the ball twice before it is returned.

Drive

A hard, low shot, often from the baseline, meant to get past the other team or force a weak reply. The Dink calls it a hard hit that looks more like a tennis stroke. On the third shot it’s the alternative to the drop, and which one to hit depends mostly on how the return came back.

Drop shot

A soft shot from deep in your court that arcs over the net and lands in or near the other team’s kitchen, so they have to hit up on it while you move forward. USA Pickleball’s basic terms call it One of the more difficult shots to master. The one you’ll hear about most is the third shot drop.

Drop serve

The second of the two legal serves: you drop the ball and hit it after it bounces, which frees it from the volley serve’s rules on where you hit the ball and how you swing. In a 2025 study of 510 serves in amateur doubles, 6.1% of drop serves were faults, against 15.0% of volley serves (Himawan et al.).

Rulebook, section 2: A serve made by dropping the ball and hitting the ball with the paddle after the ball bounces on the playing surface.

DUPR

The Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating, a number from 2.000 to 8.000 worked out from your match results, with separate ratings for singles and doubles. USA Pickleball uses it as its official rating, and since 2025 it compares the points you score with what everyone’s ratings predicted, so a narrow win can lower yours.

E

Erne

A volley hit from outside the sideline beside the kitchen, reached by walking around the kitchen’s corner or jumping over it, and named, DUPR says, after Erne Perry, a pickleball player who frequently used the move in tournament play. It’s legal while neither you nor anything touching you is on the kitchen or its lines during the volley. It’s still a fault if your momentum carries you onto them afterward, or if you hit the ball before it has crossed the net, and the ATP and Erne guide has all three ways it goes wrong.

F

Fault

Any rules violation during play. It ends the rally and the side that committed it loses the rally, and the everyday ones are a ball out or into the net, a serve into the kitchen, a volley before the ball has bounced once on each side, and a volley with a foot in the kitchen (the full list).

Rulebook, section 2: A rules violation that results in a dead ball and the loss of a rally.

Fifth shot

The serving team’s second shot after the serve. When their third shot didn’t get them to the kitchen line, the fifth is often a second drop, or a reset, to finish the job.

First server and second server

In doubles each team has two servers per turn. The first server starts from the right after a side out, and when their team loses a rally their partner takes over as the second server; the last number of the score call says which one is serving, as the three numbers in the call explains.

Rulebook, section 2: first server, The player who begins the team’s service rotation from the right serving area after a side out. Second server, The first server’s partner. The second server serves after the first server loses serve.

Foot fault

Usually a serve hit with a foot in the wrong place. At contact, at least one foot has to be on the ground in your serving area, which is behind the baseline and between the imaginary extensions of the sideline and the centerline; neither foot may touch the court, baseline included, or the ground outside that area (rules 7.A.1 to 7.A.3, and where to stand to serve). Players also say it for a toe on the kitchen line during a volley. Service foot faults and kitchen faults are the only faults rule 9.B.3 lets you call on the other team.

Freeze

An old rally-scoring rule under which you could win the game only on your own serve. The 2026 rulebook dropped it, so a team can now win the game on the other team’s serve (rules 4.B and 14.A.2).

G

Getting pickled

Losing a game without scoring a point. The Dink’s slang guide puts it as Getting pickled is when you lose the game with zero points, and its glossary of other terms calls the 11–0 game itself a pickle.

Golden pickle

Winning 11–0 without the other team ever getting the serve, so the starting server scores all 11 from 0–0–2. The Dink’s slang guide gives it another name, 11-0-start.

H

Hinder

Something not caused by the players in your game that gets in the way of a rally, most often a ball rolling in from the next court. Any player can call it, and the rally is replayed with no point (rules 9.C.1 and 9.C.2).

Rulebook, section 2: Any transient element or occurrence not caused by a player that adversely impacts play.

K

King of the court

A format for several courts. The top court is the king’s court, and after each game the winners move up a court and the losers move down; clubs vary in how they split partners and bring in new players.

Kitchen

The non-volley zone, the strip 7 feet deep on each side of the net, sideline to sideline, where you can’t volley. You can stand in it whenever you aren’t volleying, but its lines are part of it, so a toe on the line during a volley is a fault. The kitchen rules cover the odd cases too, such as a hat that falls in.

Rulebook, section 2, non-volley zone: The 7-foot by 20-foot area of the court on each end of the net where players are not allowed to volley the ball.

Kitchen line

The back edge of the kitchen, 7 feet from the net, and part of the kitchen itself. USA Pickleball’s doubles tips say In doubles, most points are won at the Non-Volley Zone (Kitchen) line, so get both of you there.

L

Ladder league

A league in which players are ranked and results move them up or down, often by moving them between courts each week. The club ladders we found run in one of two ways.

Let

Under the 2026 USA Pickleball rules there’s no let: a serve that clips the net and lands in is good and has to be returned (rules 7.E and 13.A). The rulebook has a replay instead, a rally started over with no point and no change of server, after a hinder for example, and our rules guide sets out when you get one.

Rulebook, section 2, replay: The restart of a rally without the awarding of a point or changing of the server.

Line call

Calling a ball out. Each team calls the lines on its own side (rule 8.A), and a ball you can’t promptly call out is in (rule 8.D). The etiquette guide covers who calls what, including what happens when partners disagree.

Rulebook, section 2: An audible or visual signal that a ball in play has not landed in the required court area.

Lob

A high, deep shot over the heads of players at the net, which USA Pickleball describes as A lofted shot that sends the ball high overhead and deep. It’s hit to catch the other team at the line or to buy time, and the answer to a short one is an overhead.

M

Momentum

In the kitchen rules, the movement that carries you on after a volley. If it takes you onto the kitchen or its line, that’s a fault even when the ball is already dead, and it ends only once you’ve regained your balance or stopped moving toward the kitchen. The kitchen guide has the momentum rule in full.

Rulebook, section 2: A property of a body in motion that causes a player to continue in motion after contacting the ball.

N

Nasty Nelson

A serve aimed at the receiver’s partner instead of the service court. If it hits them before it bounces, the serving team wins the rally, and no rule stops it, though DUPR says some think it’s maybe even a little unsportsmanlike. According to Pickleball Central it’s named after Timothy Nelson, a player who used it.

Non-volley zone (NVZ)

The rulebook’s name for the kitchen, often shortened to NVZ.

O

Open play

Drop-in play at a club or park. There’s no partner or booking to arrange: you put your paddle in line and play the next game with whoever comes up with you, and what to expect at open play walks through a first visit.

Overhead (smash)

A hard shot hit from above your head down into the other court, usually off a lob or a ball that has popped up. In USA Pickleball’s words it’s A hard, overhand shot directed downward into the opponent’s court; inside the kitchen you can smash a ball only after it bounces, because volleys have to start outside it.

P

Paddle stack (paddle rack)

How open play decides who’s next: you leave your paddle in a rack or a row by the courts, and the paddles go on in order. Every set of courts runs its rotation a little differently, so ask how this one works before you put yours down.

Paddle tap

The touch of paddles at the net after a game, a way of saying good game. Some partners also tap paddles with each other after every point. It’s a custom rather than a rule, one of several in pickleball etiquette.

Pickleball

One word now, though the name started as two. USA Pickleball says Joan Pritchard came up with pickle ball in 1965, as a reference to the thrown-together leftover non-starters in the ‘pickle boat’ of crew races. The story that the game was named after the family dog, Pickles, doesn’t hold up, because the dog was born in 1968, three years after pickleball was first played and named.

Poach

Crossing in front of your partner to take a ball that was theirs, most often a middle ball at the net. DUPR’s advice is not to poach a ball that’s dipping below net height, and who takes the middle is worth settling with your partner before the game.

Pop-up

A ball you meant to keep low that rises above the net instead, usually a dink, a drop or a reset, which hands the other team a ball to attack. Most dinking drills are about stopping them.

R

Rally

Everything from the serve until the ball is dead. In side-out scoring a team scores only by winning a rally on its own serve; in rally scoring every rally scores. The share you win on your serve and on theirs is one of the stats worth tracking, because it shows why a record came out the way it did.

Rulebook, section 2: Continuous play that occurs after the serve is hit and before the ball becomes dead.

Rally scoring

Scoring in which whoever wins the rally gets the point, no matter who served. Games are shorter, so a tournament may play them to 15 or 21 as well as 11, and the 2026 rulebook lists it as a provisional option (rule 14.A). Rally scoring in pickleball covers how the score is called.

Rating and skill level

The numbers like 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 that players use for level. USA Pickleball’s skill levels run from 1.0 to 5.5 and describe what a player can do, DUPR ratings come from match results, and neither organization publishes a conversion between the two. Our guide to going from 3.5 to 4.0 covers what changes between those two.

Reset

A soft shot that takes the pace off a hard ball hit at you and drops it into their kitchen, so the rally slows down while you get back into position. USA Pickleball defines it as a defensive shot where you redirect a hard offensive shot softly into your opponent’s kitchen, and it’s the shot to play when you’re in trouble.

Return of serve

The receiver’s shot back after the serve has bounced, the second shot of the rally. USA Pickleball’s advice is that The main goal is to return the serve deep, which keeps the serving team back at the baseline while you move up, the idea behind serving and returning deep.

Rulebook, section 2, receiver: The player who returns the serve.

Round robin

A format in which every player or team plays every other one instead of going out after a loss. In club round robins partners often change every game, so you need a rotation and a way to rank individuals.

S

Second server

The partner who serves after the first server loses a rally, under first server and second server.

Serve

The shot that starts every rally, hit diagonally over the kitchen into the receiver’s service court. There are two legal kinds, the volley serve and the drop serve, and each server gets one try; the rest is in the serving rules.

Rulebook, section 2: The initial strike of the ball with the paddle to start a rally.

Shake and bake

A doubles play built on a third-shot drive. The Dink describes it as A doubles play where the third shot is driven towards the middle of the court, while the other player on the serving team rushes the net to put away a high reply.

Side out

The serve passing to the other team once the serving team has lost its turn: in doubles, once both servers have lost a rally, or once the starting server has on the first turn. You’ll see it written as one word, sideout, and our scoring guide shows how a side out changes the call.

Rulebook, section 2: The awarding of the serve to the opposing team after a singles player or doubles team loses its serve.

Side-out scoring

The standard way to score, also called traditional scoring, in which only the serving team can score and games go to 11, win by 2. Side-out vs rally scoring compares the two.

Skinny singles

Singles on half the court, split down the middle, so each player covers half the width. The rulebook’s version is called mini-singles (rule 14.B), and the singles guide and the house versions cover how it’s played.

Speed-up

Hitting a soft ball hard, usually a dink, to win the point outright or force a pop-up. The ball to speed up is one that sits above the net, and when to speed up has where to aim it.

Stacking

Lining up so that each partner plays the side of the court they want once the point starts, instead of the side the score puts them on, often to keep both forehands in the middle. It’s legal, because the score fixes only where the server and receiver stand, and how to stack walks through it serving and receiving.

Starting server

The player who serves first for each team in a game. The team that serves first gets only one server on its first turn, so its starting server serves as the second server, and that’s where the 2 in 0–0–2 comes from.

Rulebook, section 2: For each doubles team, the player designated to serve first at the start of a game.

T

Third shot

The serving team’s first shot after the return. The two-bounce rule means it’s hit off the bounce, usually from near the baseline, and the choice is between a soft third shot drop, to get to the kitchen line, and a drive.

Transition zone

The middle of the court, between the baseline and the kitchen line, which you cross on your way to the net. Some players call it no man’s land, and transition drills are for getting through it a few steps at a time.

Tweener

A shot hit between your legs, usually with your back to the net after chasing down a lob.

Two-bounce rule

The serve and the return each have to bounce before anyone hits them, which is why the serving team waits at the baseline for the return. Rule 10.A: The serve and the return of serve must each bounce before being returned. Many players call it the double bounce rule, which isn’t the rulebook’s double bounce.

U

Unforced error

A miss nobody forced: a ball into the net or out that you had the time and position to play. USA Pickleball’s skill levels use how many a player makes as one of the differences between levels, and making fewer is part of what changes between 3.5 and 4.0.

V

Volley

Hitting the ball out of the air, before it bounces. You can volley anywhere outside the kitchen, but never the serve or the return, and the kitchen rules are mostly about where your feet are when you do.

Rulebook, section 2: A strike of the ball before the ball bounces.

Volley serve

The usual serve, hit out of the air after you release the ball. It has to be underhand: contact below the waist, with the paddle moving upward.

Rulebook, section 2: A serve made by hitting the released ball with the paddle before the ball bounces on the playing surface.

W

Win by two

Games usually go to 11 and must be won by 2, so at 10–10 play goes on to 12–10, 13–11 or further, and the rulebook sets no cap. Why you lose close games looks at what decides the ones that get there.

Z

Zero-zero-two (0–0–2)

The first score call in a doubles game with side-out scoring: zero for the serving team, zero for the receivers, and 2 because the starting server serves as the second server on the first turn (rules 5.B and 6.B.2). Some groups call it zero-zero-start instead.

Let your watch keep the call

A good share of these words are about the score: side outs, first and second servers, 0–0–2. Rally Trace keeps all of that on your Apple Watch. Tap the side that won each rally and it moves the score and the server on and calls the new score out loud, in side-out or rally scoring, so nobody has to remember whether they’re server 1 or 2. Scoring is free.

Every game goes to your iPhone, where your record with every partner and against every opponent is free, along with each game’s heart rate. Give a partnership about 20 games before you trust its record. Rally Trace Pro adds how often you win the rally on your serve and on theirs, and your win rate month by month, the numbers that show whether you’re getting better well before a rating moves. Get Rally Trace on the App Store; it’s free to download.