NFL

See also: N.F.L., Nfl., and nfl

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛn ɛf ɛl/

  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl

Proper noun

NFL

1. (American football) Initialism of National Football League.
   • 2021 January 27, Wayne Sterling, “Youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman to recite poem before Super Bowl LV”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 8 February 2021:

     Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate who gained national acclaim at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, will recite an original poem before Super Bowl LV, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced on Wednesday.

   • 2025 August 5, Kevin Dotson, “NFL to take 10% stake in ESPN in new media rights deal”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 14 August 2025:

     The NFL and ESPN announced a deal Tuesday that will see the league’s NFL Network and other media assets headed to the cable television giant in exchange for a 10% equity stake in the Disney-owned company.

2. Initialism of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Alternative forms

• N.F.L.

Derived terms

• NFLer

Noun

NFL (uncountable)

1. (mathematics) Initialism of no free lunch, applied to various restricting theorems.
   • 2002, William A. Dembski, No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot be Purchased Without Intelligence, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 204:

     First off, let us be clear that the No Free Lunch theorems that underwrite the displacement problem apply with perfect generality—NFL applies to any information that might supplement a blind search, and not just to fitness functions.

2. (chiefly UK) American football.
   • 2007 07, Running Times, page 64:

     Soon after Boston and London were over, two other dramatic races were playing out in my head [...] just as we enjoy the long term implications of a match result in baseball, NFL or soccer.

   • 2017 March 16, Pearl Bullivant, “Shine Bright like a Diamond”, in The Beast‎^[3], archived from the original on 14 June 2024:

     In a neo-conservative era where parents have regressed by dressing their daughters as pink princesses, where toy stores segregate their merchandise according to ‘gender’, where women playing NFL in bikinis is ‘sport’, and where Miss Universe is every adolescent girl’s ambition, was I really that gullible to believe that Gen Y would radically commit engagement rings – and, hence, elaborate weddings – to the dumpster?

Anagrams

• FLN, LFN

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English NFL (“National Football League”).

Proper noun

NFL f

1. (American football) NFL
   • 2025 September 2, Pablo A. García Escorihuela, “Vuelve la NFL: estos son los 8 candidatos para la temporada 2025/2026”, in CNN en Español‎^[4], archived from the original on 23 September 2025:

     El tiempo de pruebas se terminó. Después de tres semanas intensas de enfrentamientos de pretemporada, los 32 equipos de la NFL están listos para volver a la acción para la temporada 2025/2026, que comienza este jueves.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)