Word.ws English Dictionary

pound-for-pound

pound-for-pound adverb: a comparison of fighters' (usually boxers) skill levels, regardless of what weight class they are in.

Adverb

pound-for-pound (not comparable)

  1. A comparison of fighters' (usually boxers) skill levels, regardless of what weight class they are in.
    • Sugar Ray Robinson is pound for pound the best boxer ever.
    • Oakland native Ward is now unbeaten in 25 fights and can now claim to be one of the top few pound-for-pound fighters on the planet after a technically dazzling display.2011 December 18, Ben Dirs, “Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward”, in BBC Sport
  2. Pertaining to how any two things compare when bearing in mind their real or relative, figurative weight.
    • A tin of tomatoes weighing 250 g and costing $2.50 is more expensive, pound-for-pound, than one weighing 500 g and costing $4 (as the former costs $1.00 per 100 g and the latter $0.80 per 100 g).
    • My gal is pound for pound sweeter than chocolate.

Questions about pound-for-pound

What does pound-for-pound mean?
Pound-for-pound means a comparison of fighters' (usually boxers) skill levels, regardless of what weight class they are in.
What part of speech is pound-for-pound?
Pound-for-pound is an adverb.

Words near pound-for-pound in the dictionary

  1. pound sterling
  2. pound the pavement
  3. pound the table
  4. pound town
  5. pound-foolish
  6. pound-for-pound
  7. pound-force
  8. pound-forces
  9. pound-mass
  10. pound-shop
  11. poundable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pound-for-pound (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: “pound-for-pound.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pound-for-pound. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.