Cue sports (sometimes written cuesports), also known as billiard sports,[1][2] are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions.

Historically, the umbrella term was billiards. While that familiar name is still employed by some as a generic label for all such games, the word's usage has splintered into more exclusive competing meanings in various parts of the world. For example, in British and Australian English, "billiards" usually refers exclusively to the game of English billiards, while in American and Canadian English it is sometimes used to refer to a particular game or class of games, or to all cue games in general, depending upon dialect and context. In other countries, the term "billiards" may be used colloquially to refer to pool.

There are 3 major subdivisions of games within cue sports:

Snooker and English billiards, games played on a billiards table with six pockets called a snooker table (which has dimensions just under 12 ft by 6 ft), which are classified entirely separately from pool based on a separate historical development, as well as a separate culture and terminology that characterize their play. Bridges are a common pool item used to aid in shooting. Bridges may never be used to shoot in nine-ball pool.