page_title: Glossary of cue sports terms
section_title: C
hierarchical_section_title: Glossary of cue sports terms / C
caption_attribution_description: English: A complete set of snooker balls. Deutsch: Ein kompletter Satz Snookerkugeln.
context_page_description: The following is a glossary of traditional English-language terms used in the three overarching cue sports disciplines: carom billiards referring to the various carom games played on a billiard table without pockets; pool, which denotes a host of games played on a table with six pockets; and snooker, played on a large pocket table, and which has a sport culture unto itself distinct from pool. There are also hybrid pocket/carom games such as English billiards.
context_section_description: calcutta 
   A player's auction at a pool tournament. Each player is called and players and spectators bid on the player. The highest bidder(s) pays their bid to the calcutta, and by doing so invest in that player's success. If a player wins or places in the tournament, those who "bought" the player receive a percentage of the total calcutta payout, usually tracking the percentage payout of the tournament prize fund. Typically, players have the option of purchasing half of themselves when the high bid is won by a third party. Like english and scotch doubles, usually not capitalized. 
   call 
   Any instance of a player having to say what they are about to do. For example, in straight pool a player must call the pocket in which a ball is intended to be potted. More formal terms, used in rule books and instructional materials, include designate and nominate. Contrast fish, slop. 
  call-safe 
   
  Applies specifically to games that enforce "call-pocket/call-safe" rules, which require the player to either call the ball and pocket, or call a safety on every shot. After a legal shot, where a called ball is not pocketed as designated, the incoming player has the option to pass the shot back to the player who missed the called shot. If a player calls "safe", then after a legal shot, the incoming player must accept the next shot, and may not pass the shot back to the player who called "safe". A call-shot/call-safe nine-ball example: Player A calls the ball-on, the 3 ball in this case, in the corner pocket but misses the shot. The cue ball rolls down table and comes to rest behind the 5 ball leaving no clear path to the 3 ball for the incoming player B. Since player A did not call "safe", incoming player B may elect to pass the shot back to player A (who must shoot).
  call-shot 
   
  Describes any game in which during normal play a player must call the ball to be hit and the intended pocket; "eight-ball is a call-shot game." Sometimes referred to as "call[ed]-pocket", "ball-and-pocket rules", etc., to distinguish it from the common North American bar pool practice of requiring every aspect of shots to be called, such as caroms, kicks, and cushions to be contacted (this is sometimes also ambiguously referred to as "call-shot", but more accurately termed "call-everything" or "call-it-all"). Commonly in bar rules terminology, call-shot indicates how the shot will be made as compared to call-pocket which means simply that the ball must go into that pocket, details unnecessary. Though games with called shots technically require all shots to be called, obvious shots are seldom actually called, though such implied called shots must still be made. See also gentlemen's call.
   called ball 
   The ball designated by a player to be pocketed on a shot. 
   called pocket 
   The pocket designated by a player to which a ball is to be shot. 
  cannon 
   British/Australian and sometimes Canadian term for carom. Formerly (19th century) sometimes spelled canon.
  carambole 
  
  1.  The red object ball in carom billiards games. The term is thought to be derived from an orange-colored, tropical Asian fruit, called a carambola in English, Spanish, and several other languages, in turn from karambal in the Marathi language of India.
  2.  A general-purpose term for carom billiards games
  3.  (Obsolete.) Alternate name for the game of straight rail
  4.  A carom.
   card 
   Short for tournament card. 
  carom 
  1.  Carom came into use in the 1860s and is a shortening of carambola, which was earlier used to describe the red object ball used in many billiards games. In modern usage, the most general meaning of the word refers to any type of strike and rebound, (a carambole) off a cushion or especially a ball.
  2.  More specifically, short for a carom shot, a cannon in British terminology, in which a point is scored in carom billiards games by careening the cue ball into the two object balls.
  3.  In pocket games as a general class, carrom or carom shot is sometimes used more loosely, between the above two definitions, to refer to clipping an object ball with the cue ball to attempt to send either
caption: A complete set of snooker balls with 15 red balls, six coloured balls and a cue ball
exif: {}