Word.ws English Dictionary

body-building

body-building is the alternative form of bodybuilding.

body-building is the present participle and gerund of body-build.

Meaning of bodybuilding

Noun

bodybuilding (uncountable)

  1. A sport in which the aesthetics of muscular development is the basis for competition.
    • Like those activities, bodybuilding is an obsession, a living (for a few), and a way of life for the people involved in it—a subculture, in a word, with its own values, aesthetics and vocabulary.1974, Charles Gaines, George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, page 7
  2. (dated) Work done to construct or repair the body of an automobile.
    • In my day, if you filled out your shirt, people assumed you played football or wrestled. The term bodybuilding had more to do with cars than lifting weights.2006 — Larry Scott (interview), Iron Man 65(5): 258

Questions about body-building

What is body-building the alternative form of?
Body-building is the alternative form of bodybuilding.

Words near body-building in the dictionary

  1. body-blows
  2. body-build
  3. body-builded
  4. body-builder
  5. body-builders
  6. body-building
  7. body-builds
  8. body-built
  9. body-centered
  10. body-check
  11. body-checked

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: body-building (page history and authors); bodybuilding (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “body-building.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/body-building. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.