Badminton is a racket sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles).

Players at opposite ends of the court aim to hit a shuttlecock, more informally called a shuttle, bird or birdie, over the net so that it lands inside the marked boundaries of the court, and aim to prevent their opponents from doing the same. Unlike a tennis ball, the shuttlecock flies with a lot of drag, and will not bounce significantly. The shuttlecock is always volleyed, and a rally ends as soon as it touches the ground. Shuttles are made either from feathers or nylon. Badminton racquets have long shafts, to make it easier to impart a great deal of momentum to overcome the drag. The racquets are also much lighter than tennis racquets, because the shuttlecock is light. Badminton is the fastest racquet sport in the world with shuttles reaching speeds of up to 332 km/h (206 mph) (faster than the speed of the Eurostar train). Badminton champion Fu Haifeng of China set the official world smash record on June 3, 2005. The actual shuttlecock speed was measured at 332 km/h (approximately 206 mph), making badminton the fastest racquet sport in the world.

Badminton is often compared to tennis. The rallies of each point tend to be much longer in badminton than in tennis. This is true even though winning a 'shutout' match in badminton requires only winning 42 points (21-0, 21-0, in a Men's Single match)(This is the newest rule set by the international badminton association!) whereas in tennis it would require 72 points (6-0, 6-0, 6-0).The game can be physically more tiring than tennis as the time between shots can be much shorter. When a shot is played in tennis the whole of the arm is used in one sweeping action, whereas in badminton a wide range of motions is employed, from delicate flicks of wrist and pressing of fingers to full-body smashes and clears. Speed, reaction, and endurance are all important to being a successful badminton player. From a fitness perspective a close comparison can be made to squash which also has the same explosive starts.

As in tennis, there are typically five events: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles (each pair is composed of one man and one woman). There are different tatics for this game, e.g mens singles and doubles.