noun
General term for cue sports, including pocket billiards (pool) and carom billiards.
週末は友達と玉突きをしに行く。
On weekends I go play pool with friends.
彼は玉突きがとても上手だ。
He is very good at billiards.
noun
serial collisions; pileup
Metaphorical use likening a chain-reaction crash to billiard balls hitting each other; often used in traffic accident reports.
高速道路で玉突き事故が発生した。
A multiple-vehicle pileup occurred on the expressway.
Alternate kanji using 撞く (to strike); less common than 玉突き.
Uses 球 (ball) instead of 玉; rare variant.
ビリヤード is a direct loanword for billiards, often used for the sport in general or in names of halls. 玉突き is the native Japanese term and can also refer to the game or the act of striking balls.
ポケット (pocket) is used in compound terms like ポケットビリヤード (pocket billiards). 玉突き covers both pocket and carom games.
Compound of 玉 (ball) and 突き (striking), from the verb 突く (to strike). The metaphorical sense for traffic accidents comes from the image of balls colliding in sequence.