hobby

leisure activity

Also known as: pastime

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

June 29, 2026

Quick Summary

A hobby is an activity outside of one's regular occupation that is engaged in primarily for pleasure. Hobbies are a form of leisure, which is freedom from disagreeable work or duties. They can be casual, like watching television or socializing, or more involved, such as serious leisure activities like amateur pursuits or volunteering.123

Examples of hobbies include:
* Collecting: antiquing, art collecting, coin collecting4
* Crafts: crochet, knitting, embroidery4
* Outdoor Recreation: bird-watching, gardening, fishing4
* Puzzles: crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, sudoku4

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

4 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

- history of publishing
  Nonprofessional types
  …layman may fall into the hobby category. Very often a professional magazine has an amateur counterpart, as, for instance, in electronics, where the amateur finds a wide range of technical magazines on radio, television, hi-fi, and tape recording. Other popular subjects are photography (the British Amateur Photographer was founded in…
  Read More
  …layman may fall into the hobby category. Very often a professional magazine has an amateur counterpart, as, for instance, in electronics, where the amateur finds a wide range of technical magazines on radio, television, hi-fi, and tape recording. Other popular subjects are photography (the British Amateur Photographer was founded in…
  Read More