Word.ws English Dictionary

decathlon

/diːˈkæθlɒn/

decathlon noun: an athletic contest consisting of ten events which includes sprinting, hurdling, jumping, and throwing over a span of two days.

Noun

decathlon (plural decathlons or decathla)

  1. An athletic contest consisting of ten events which includes sprinting, hurdling, jumping, and throwing over a span of two days.
    • He entered U.C.L.A. in 1954 and played for the renowned coach John Wooden’s basketball team there while training for decathlons.2020 February 12, Richard Goldstein, “Rafer Johnson, Winner of a Memorable Decathlon, Is Dead”, in The New York Times
    • For now, Gray and her peers are able to compete for Olympic berths only in the seven-event heptathlon, while the decathlon is restricted to men.2021 June 7, Shauna Farnell, “An Olympic Hurdle: Why Is the Decathlon Only for Men?”, in The New York Times
  2. A contest in science and math proving skill.

decathlon meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Malay and Persian

decathlon in Tamil

பத்துவகைத்தடகளப்போட்டிகள்

decathlon in Malayalam

athletic contest
ഡക്കാത്ത്ലോൺ ḍakkāttlōṇ

decathlon in Malay

athletic contest
dasalumba

decathlon in Persian

athletic contest
دهگانه
More languagesFewer languages
decathlon in Vietnamese
mười môn phối hợp

Forms of decathlon

pluraldecathlons
pluraldecathla

Origin of decathlon

From dec- + -athlon, coined for the 1912 Summer Olympics in analogy to the word pentathlon.

Questions about decathlon

What does decathlon mean?
Decathlon means an athletic contest consisting of ten events which includes sprinting, hurdling, jumping, and throwing over a span of two days.
What is decathlon in Tamil?
Decathlon in Tamil is பத்துவகைத்தடகளப்போட்டிகள். See Decathlon meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is decathlon?
Decathlon is a noun.
How do you pronounce decathlon?
Decathlon is pronounced /diːˈkæθlɒn/ (UK).
What is the plural of decathlon?
The plural of decathlon is decathlons.

Words near decathlon in the dictionary

  1. decatheterization
  2. decathexes
  3. decathexis
  4. decathlete
  5. decathletes
  6. decathlon
  7. decathlons
  8. decatholicization
  9. decatholicize
  10. decatholicized
  11. decatholicizes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: decathlon (page history and authors); decathlon (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-decathlon.wav.

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