tennis stroke
- noun
- A strong tennis stroke can greatly enhance your performance in a match.
Examples
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It would be like a backhand tennis stroke versus a forehand. "For sure," Rogoff said, nodding.
Fiction book (1992) -
She practiced her tennis stroke every day to improve her game.
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The coach showed us how to execute a proper tennis stroke during the lesson.
Synonyms
A hit of the tennis ball with a racket during play
How Accurate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'tennis' identifies the sport and 'stroke' denotes a hit or striking action, so together they denote an act of hitting in tennis. This follows a common noun-noun/compound pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Tennis stroke comes from the sport name tennis and the word stroke, which means a single hit or movement. It creates the picture of hitting the ball with a racket, so it now means 'the act of hitting a tennis ball' during play.