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Olympiad

[uh-lim-pee-ad, oh-lim-]

noun

(often lowercase)
  1. a period of four years reckoned from one celebration of the Olympic Games to the next, by which the Greeks computed time from 776 b.c.

  2. a celebration of the modern Olympic Games.



Olympiad

/ əˈɪɪˌæ /

noun

  1. a staging of the modern Olympic Games

  2. the four-year period between consecutive celebrations of the Olympic Games; a unit of ancient Greek chronology dating back to 776 bc

  3. an international contest in chess, bridge, etc

“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
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Other Word Forms

  • Olympiadic adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of Olympiad1

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin Olympiad-, stem of Olympias < Greek ⳾辱á noun use of the adj.: of Olympus. See Olympia, -ad 1
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

"Compare that with a person who won the International Mathematics Olympiad," Roxana says, referring to a competition Dan won in the 1980s.

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The Olympics will arrive in summer 2028, and with it, the Cultural Olympiad, with its mission of highlighting the city’s wealth of arts offerings.

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Gukesh won the individual gold medal for best performance in the last two Olympiads.

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And in July, a math-focused AI model from Google DeepMind performed at a silver medal standard on problems from the International Mathematical Olympiad, the world’s premier competition for high school math.

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"I wasn't meant to be riding this Olympiad and I did and I've loved every minute of it," said Hodgkins-Byrne, adding that two-year-old Freddie has already tried to pinch her medal.

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When To Use

does Olympiad mean?

An Olympiad is one of the events known as the Olympic Games, an international athletic competition featuring multiple sporting events between athletes representing their country.The Olympic Games are commonly called the Olympics and are sometimes referred to as the Games of the Olympiad, often incorporating the number of the current event. For example, the official name given to the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo was the Games of the XXXII (32nd) Olympiad.There are two related but separate events that can be called an Olympiad: one hosted in winter, called the Winter Games, and one hosted in summer, called the Summer Games (they are commonly called the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics). The Winter Olympics feature winter sports, including figure skating, skiing, snowboarding, ice hockey, and many others. The Summer Olympics feature traditionally warm weather and indoor sports, like track and field, gymnastics, swimming, and basketball, among many others.Olympiads are now usually staggered: there is usually two years between the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics, with each being held every four years (usually in even-numbered years). The Summer Olympics are usually in July and August and the Winter Olympics are usually held in February.The modern Olympics are based on an ancient Greek festival and competition that’s also referred to as the Olympic Games. In this context, the word Olympiad refers to the four-year period between consecutive celebrations of the Olympic Games. The ancient Greeks actually used the four-year period known as the Olympiad as a unit of time (in a way similar to how we use a decade as a unit of 10 years).The word Olympiad is sometimes used in a more general way in the names of other competitions, such as a Chess Olympiad.

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