scrimmage

The word scrimmage came from skirmish and once suggested a small fight or rough clash. That older sense still appears at times when people talk about a brief struggle or scuffle, but today the word is far more common in sports.

Most often, a scrimmage is a practice game or full-speed training session. It gives players and coaches a chance to try tactics, test combinations, and see how people perform under pressure, but without the result counting in the standings. You might hear about a football scrimmage in preseason, a basketball scrimmage in training camp, or any similar session that is more serious than an ordinary drill.

In American football, scrimmage has another important use. The "line of scrimmage" is the line where the ball is placed before the play starts, and both teams line up on their side of it. From there, the next action begins. Because of that phrase, the word can point either to a practice contest or to the starting point of a play, depending on the context. In a wider and older sense, it can also describe a rough, confused struggle, though that use is less common now.