Olympics

The word “Olympics” means the Olympic Games, the major international multi-sport competition held every four years. In plain terms, the international sporting event held every four years, or loosely, any big competition.

Here is “Olympics” used in a sentence: “The Winter Olympics feature sports like skiing and figure skating.”

Depending on how it is used, “Olympics” can be a name and a noun.

“Olympics” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.

“Olympics” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: the Olympic Games, the major international multi-sport competition held every four years.

The Olympic Games take place every four years, a span sometimes called an Olympiad. Since 1994 the Summer and Winter Games have alternated on staggered four-year cycles, so a major Olympics actually occurs every two years — Summer, then Winter, then Summer again — keeping the event almost always on the horizon.

The Summer Olympics feature warm-weather sports such as athletics, swimming, gymnastics, and cycling, and are much larger. The Winter Olympics focus on snow and ice events like skiing, skating, and bobsleigh. Both run every four years but are staggered, so one set of Games happens every two years.

The Olympics is the main multi-sport event for able-bodied athletes, while the Paralympics is the parallel elite competition for athletes with disabilities, held shortly afterwards in the same host city. Both are pinnacle international events; the Paralympics has its own governing body, classifications, and full programme of sports.

The Olympics is the world's foremost sporting event, drawing thousands of athletes from around 200 nations and a television audience of billions. Beyond sport, it carries ideals of international friendship, fair play, and excellence, and hosting the Games is a major source of national pride and investment.