Word.ws English Dictionary

olympiad

Syllables: Olym·pi·adUK/əˈlɪmpiæd//oʊˈlɪm.pi.æd/

olympiad is the alternative letter-case form of Olympiad.

Noun capitalized: Olympiad

Olympiad (plural Olympiads)

  1. A four-year period, particularly (historical) those based on Hippias's computations of the ancient Olympic Games which placed Coroebus's footrace victory in 776 BCE and (sports) those based on the modern Summer Olympic Games first held in 1896.
    • Ancient sources variously dated the founding of Rome to the 38th year before the first Olympiad, the third or fourth year of the sixth Olympiad, the first year of the seventh or eighth Olympiad, or the fourth year of the 12th Olympiad.
    • Now was bright Hero weary of the day,
      Thought an Olympiad in Leanders ſtay.1598, George Chapman, “Fifth Sestyad”, in Christopher Marlo[w]e, George Chapman, Hero and Leander: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Richard Hawkins: […], published 1629, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    quadrennium
  2. (proscribed, sometimes) Synonym of Olympic Games: an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.
    • Victors at the ancient Olympiads only won an olive wreath but were usually freed from paying taxes for the remainder of their life, but modern Olympians have frequently needed to pay taxes on the market value of their gold, silver, or bronze medals.
    • It was their [the priests of Jupiter Olympius's] Buſineſs, alſo not only to regiſter the Names of the Victors in the ſeveral Games, with other Matters relating to them, but alſo whatever occurr'd remarkable, during the Intervals between the Celebration of every Olympiad.1707, Thomas Hind, “Book II. The Second Period, from the Taking of Troy, to the Battle of Marathon, Containing the Space of 700 Years.”, in The History of Greece. […], London: […] S. and J. Sprint...
    Synonyms:
    Olympic Games
  3. (broadly, usually preceded by descriptive words) A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
    • the International Mathematical Olympiad... the Science Olympiad... the International Science Olympiads... the Women's Chess Olympiad...
    • The Junior Olympiad track and field meet was a major special event with 276 entrants.1943 November, Margaret King, “Southwest District Association News [California]”, in Mary Wibel, editor, The Journal of Health and Physical Education, volume 14, number 9, Washington, D.C.: American...

Synonyms of olympiad

Forms of olympiad

pluralolympiads
pluralOlympiads
alternative formOl.
alternative formolympiad

Origin of olympiad

From the plural forms Olimpiades, Olympiades, and Olympiadiz of Middle English Olimpias and Olympias (“ancient Olympic Games, 4-year period between these games, intense battle or competition”) from Middle French Olympiade and Old French Olympiade (“ancient Olympic games, 4-year period between these games”), from Latin Olympias (“4-year period between Olympic Games”) whose genitive form was Olympiados or Olympiadis), from Ancient Greek Ὀλυμπῐᾰ́ς (Olumpĭắs, “ancient Olympic Games, 4-year period between these games”) whose plural form was Ὀλυμπῐᾰ́δες (Olumpĭắdes), from Ὀλυμπῐ́ᾱ (Olumpĭ́ā, “Olympia”), the town in ancient Greece where the games were held, + -ᾰ́ς (-ắs, a suffix forming feminine adjectives or nouns), from either Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos, “of or related to Mount Olympus, Olympian, the Olympian Zeus”) or Ὄλῠμπος (Ólŭmpos, “Mount Olympus”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). The use of olympiad for academic competitions aspiring to the level of the Olympic Games was first popularized by the International Mathematical Olympiad, a calque of its Romanian name Olimpiada Internațională de Matematică.

Words formed from olympiad

Questions about olympiad

What does olympiad mean?
Olympiad means a four-year period, particularly (historical) those based on Hippias's computations of the ancient Olympic Games which placed Coroebus's footrace victory in 776 BCE and (sports) those based on the modern Summer Olympic Games first held in 1896.
What is olympiad the alternative letter-case form of?
Olympiad is the alternative letter-case form of Olympiad.
What part of speech is olympiad?
Olympiad is a noun.
How do you pronounce olympiad?
Olympiad is pronounced /oʊˈlɪm.pi.æd/ (US).
What is the plural of olympiad?
The plural of olympiad is olympiads.

Words near olympiad in the dictionary

  1. olykoek
  2. olykoeks
  3. Olympia
  4. Olympia oyster
  5. Olympia oysters
  6. olympiad
  7. olympiadane
  8. olympiadanes
  9. Olympiadic
  10. olympiads
  11. Olympian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: olympiad (page history and authors); Olympiad (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-olympiad.ogg, En-au-Olympiad.ogg.

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