pentathlon
/pɛntˈæθlən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.12 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An ancient athletics discipline, featuring five events: stadion, wrestling, long jump, javelin and discus
noun
Ellipsis of women's pentathlon (“a 20th-century athletics discipline for women, the women's counterpart of the men's decathlon, the predecessor to the women's heptathlon, featuring five events: hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, and a run”).
Example Sentences
- "In the end, why not be happy with both, with the BMXes and the pentathlons, with the swans of synchro and the Quasimodos of wrestling? Sweet."
- "Dwindling interest and a reputation for being outdated couldn’t change modern pentathlon. A brief video clip of a coach punching a horse at the Tokyo Olympics has altered it forever. After more than a century of having its participants compete by running, shooting, fencing, swimming and riding, modern pentathlon will drop equestrian jumping from the event, the sport’s federation said Thursday."
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek πένταθλον (péntathlon), from πέντε (pénte, “five”) + ἆθλον (âthlon, “contest”). By surface analysis, penta- + -athlon.
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Sports.
Inflected Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
ancient pentathlon
Greek pentathlon
ancient Greek pentathlon