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Olympics

 - 4 dictionary results
Canada 2010 Olympic Games
Welcoming the World in 2010. Visit Vancouver for the Winter Olympics.
www.HelloBC.com/2010_Olympic_Games
Olympics
Olympics in the News Breaking Top Stories & TV Feeds.
www.russiatoday.com

O⋅lym⋅pic

  [uh-lim-pik, oh-lim-]
Use Olympics in a Sentence
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to the Olympic Games: an Olympic contender.
2. of or pertaining to Olympia, in Greece.
3. pertaining to Mount Olympus, in Greece.
4. Olympian (def. 3).
–noun
5. an Olympian deity.
6. Olympics. Olympic Games. (def. 2).
Origin:
1590–1600; < L Olympicus of Olympus, of Olympia < Gk Olympikós. See Olympus, -ic
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Olympics
Canada 2010 Olympic Games
Welcoming the World in 2010. Visit Vancouver for the Winter Olympics.
www.HelloBC.com/2010_Olympic_Games
Olympics
Olympics in the News Breaking Top Stories & TV Feeds.
www.russiatoday.com
Olympic Games  
n.  

    1. (used with a pl. verb) A group of modern international athletic contests held as separate winter and summer competitions every four years in a different city. In 1994 the winter games were moved ahead two years so that the winter and summer games would alternate every two years.

    2. (used with a sing. verb) The set of contests that occur in one season: an Olympic Games that was boycotted by many countries. Also called Olympics.

  2. (used with a pl. verb) A Pan-Hellenic festival in ancient Greece consisting of athletic games and contests of choral poetry and dance, first celebrated in 776 B.C. and held periodically until A.D. 393 on the plain of Olympia in honor of the Olympian Zeus. Also called Olympian Games.

O·lym·pics   (ō-lĭm'pĭks)   
n.  See Olympic Games.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Olympic 
1610, "of or in ref. to Olympos, also Olympia (khora)," town or district in Elis in ancient Greece, where athletic contests in honor of Olympian Zeus were held 776 B.C.E. and every four years thereafter, from Gk. Olympikos, from Olympos, of unknown origin. The modern Olympic Games are a revival, begun in 1896. Not the same place as Mount Olympus, abode of the gods, which was in Thessaly. The name was given to several mountains, each seemingly the highest in its district.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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