Sports That Start With N – Netball to Novuss

How it works

Sports that start with N are scarce: this list has 12 and one shared name, from netball and nine-ball to Nordic walking and novuss. Each has one line, and the button deals one for an alphabet game.

Read the full guide

Sports that begin with the letter N and a number

Three take their name from nine. Nine-ball is a pool discipline, nine-pin bowling is the European game also called kegel, and nine-man football is American football for high schools too small for the 11-man game.

Nordic skiing and the sports starting with N on snow

Nordic skiing is an everyday name, outside the count of 12: it covers cross-country skiing under C, and ski jumping and ski flying under S. Nordic combined is counted, since it is one event: ski jumping followed by a cross-country ski race.

Questions and answers

What are the sports that start with the letter N?

Nadan panthu kali, narodno rvanje, naval pentathlon, neppis, netball, Newcomb ball, nine-ball, nine-man football, nine-pin bowling, Nordic combined, Nordic walking and novuss.

How many sports beginning with N are there?

This list has 12 that passed our check against each sport's own Wikipedia article. Naginatajutsu, a martial art, and nine-a-side footy, which its article says is not yet an official sport, were left out.

Which sports that start with letter N are played by teams?

Netball is seven a side, with no dribbling and no running with the ball. Newcomb ball, nine-man football and nadan panthu kali, a game from Kerala played with a stuffed leather ball, are team sports too.

What is neppis?

A Finnish outdoor game that simulates race driving with small toy cars on sand. Novuss, another N game, is played by two or four on a board about 100 centimeters square.

All 13 sports

N 13

Nadan panthu kali A team sport from Kerala, India: two teams of seven play with a stuffed leather ball.
Narodno rvanje Traditional folk wrestling of Serbia; the name means folk wrestling.
Naval pentathlon A five-event contest for military athletes, held at the Military World Games.
Neppis A Finnish outdoor game that simulates race driving with small toy cars on sand.
Netball Seven a side, no dribbling, and no running with the ball.
Newcomb ball Two teams and a net in a gymnasium; it was created in 1895, the same year as volleyball.
Nine-ball A pool discipline that began in the United States in the 1920s: the cue ball is used to pocket nine colored balls.
Nine-man football American football with nine a side, played by high schools too small for the 11-man game.
Nine-pin bowling Also called kegel: a bowling game played mainly in Europe.
Nordic combined Ski jumping followed by a cross-country ski race.
Nordic skiing Skiing with the heel free to lift off the ski: see cross-country skiing (C), ski jumping (S), ski flying (S).
Nordic walking Walking with specially designed poles similar to ski poles; it comes from Finland.
Novuss A game for two or four on a board about 100 centimeters square, related to carrom and pocket billiards.

How this list was compiled

Every sport on our checked list whose name begins with N: 12 sports and 1 everyday umbrella name that points to the sports it covers. Cut from our sports alphabet, which takes its names from Wikipedia's List of sports (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports), read on 2026-10-04. 2 of the lines were checked on 2026-09-18 and 2026-09-19 for our random sport generator; the other 11 were written on 2026-10-04 from the opening of each sport's own English Wikipedia article. Blood sports with animals, games for adults, mind sports and trade-marked games are left out, as are entries whose article does not describe a sport played under rules. Licence: own work