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athletics

UK/æθˈlɛtɪks/US/æθˈlɛtɪks/
nounB2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,822 of 15,258mostly written

Athletics is the sports of running, jumping and throwing. Do athletics, an athletics meeting, the athletics track.

In Britain it means track and field; in America athletics means sport in general and the discipline is called track and field, which is a reliable source of confusion. It is the core of the summer Olympics and the oldest recorded competitive sport. Note athlete, athletic; and that the Greek athlon meant a prize, so an athlete is one who competes for a prize.

Definitions of athletics

  1. 1nounathleticsThe sports of running, jumping and throwing.B2

    “She loves athletics, especially the high jump and the relay.”

athletics is a group of sports.

Where it comes from

Athletic plus -ics, on the model of gymnastics, from Greek athlon, a prize, and athletes, a competitor. An athlete is one who competes for a prize.

From athletic: see -ics. Probably formed on the model of gymnastics.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sports & Games Played

Practise this word

athletics in the wild

  • The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and race walking.

    Sport of athletics

  • The simplicity of the competitions and the lack of need for expensive equipment make athletics one of the most widely practiced sports in the world.

    Sport of athletics

  • The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events.

    Decathlon

  • In modern times, the two most prestigious international track and field competitions are the athletics competition at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships.

    Track and field

  • World Athletics, formerly known as the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), is the international governing body for the sport of athletics.

    Track and field

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.