athletics

[ ath-let-iks ]
See synonyms for athletics on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. (usually used with a plural verb) athletic sports, as running, rowing, or boxing.

  2. British. track-and-field events.

  1. (usually used with a singular verb) the practice of athletic exercises; the principles of athletic training.

Origin of athletics

1
First recorded in 1595–1605; see origin at athletic, -ics

pronunciation note For athletics

See athlete.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use athletics in a sentence

  • My objections to your sports and athletics seem to have very little reality about them, children, said Mrs. Belding.

  • The sports themselves were those that we are accustomed to group together as track and field athletics.

    The Private Life of the Romans | Harold Whetstone Johnston
  • The latter learned that in athletics especially the rivalry between the two lower and the two upper classes was intense.

    Ruth Fielding At College | Alice B. Emerson
  • Having ploughed the mortgaged acres, and tossed hay and broken colts, college athletics struck him as rather puerile diversion.

    A Hoosier Chronicle | Meredith Nicholson
  • Respite came to him for a year or two before he went to college because athletics became his god.

    The Boy Grew Older | Heywood Broun

British Dictionary definitions for athletics

athletics

/ (æθˈlɛtɪks) /


noun(functioning as plural or singular)
    • track and field events

    • (as modifier): an athletics meeting

  1. sports or exercises engaged in by athletes

  1. the theory or practice of athletic activities and training

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012