Word.ws English Dictionary

running start

running start noun: a start to a race in which a contestant is already at full speed before reaching the starting line or take-off point.

Noun

running start (plural running starts)

  1. A start to a race in which a contestant is already at full speed before reaching the starting line or take-off point.
  2. (idiomatic) An initial advantage at the beginning of some action or pursuit; a head start.
    • His background in the military gave him a running start in his engineering career.
    • The basketball season got off to a running start last week.

Forms of running start

pluralrunning starts

Questions about running start

What does running start mean?
Running start means a start to a race in which a contestant is already at full speed before reaching the starting line or take-off point.
What part of speech is running start?
Running start is a noun.
What is the plural of running start?
The plural of running start is running starts.

Words near running start in the dictionary

  1. running something up the flagpole
  2. running sore
  3. running sores
  4. running speech
  5. Running Springs
  6. running start
  7. running starts
  8. running stationer
  9. running stationers
  10. running stitch
  11. running stitches

Source and license

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