Meaning & use
hobby
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Meanings
nouncountable
Something you enjoy doing regularly in your spare time, not as paid work.
Grammar: Countable: one hobby, several hobbies.
Patterns
- take up a hobby
- a hobby of someone
- turn a hobby into something
Gardening is her favorite hobby.
He took up a new hobby after retiring.
Collecting stamps was a hobby he shared with his grandfather.
nouncountablebiology
A small falcon that hunts insects and small birds in flight.
Grammar: A rare bird name, usually in nature writing.
A hobby swept over the meadow, catching dragonflies.
The hobby is a fast flier and visits Europe in summer.
We saw a hobby hunting over the lake.
Word forms
| plural | hobbies |
|---|
Common combinations
- take up a hobby
- I decided to take up a hobby after the long winter.
- pursue a hobby
- She pursues her hobby of painting every weekend.
- a favorite hobby
- Baking is a favorite hobby of mine.
- turn a hobby into a career
- He turned his hobby into a career.
- leisure hobby
- Birdwatching is a relaxing leisure hobby.
- expensive hobby
- Photography can be an expensive hobby.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pastime
- Pastime is a slightly more formal word for any activity that fills spare time, even a casual one.
- pursuit
- Pursuit sounds serious or formal and often suggests a more committed activity.
- interest
- Interest can be something you like to read about or follow, not necessarily do regularly.
- pastime activity
- Hobby involves doing something regularly and often building a skill, so it implies more commitment than idle pastimes.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: hobby or habit? hobby or hobo?
hobby vs habit
A habit is something you do regularly, often without thinking, such as biting your nails; a hobby is chosen for fun.
hobby vs hobo
A hobo is a wandering worker or homeless traveler, an unrelated word.
Practice
Painting began as a ___ for her, but now she sells her work at galleries.
Choose one answer.
A hobby is an activity done for fun. A habit is an automatic behavior, and career and chore do not suit began as.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hobby”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.