PENTATHLON • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Pentathlon

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noun

Pentathlon n. (Gr. Antiq.)

A fivefold athletic performance peculiar to the great national games of the Greeks, including leaping, foot racing, wrestling, throwing the discus, and throwing the spear.

In the modern Olympic Games, a composite contest made up of a running broad jump, throwing the javelin, a 200-meter run, throwing the discus, and a 1500-meter run.

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Etymology of 'Pentathlon'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pentathlon" Quotes from Famous Books

... songs bear witness to the pride of family or township in the physical perfection of son or citizen, and his consequent success in the long or the short foot-race, or the foot-race in armour, or the pentathlon, or any part of it. "Now on one, now on another," as the poet tells, "doth the grace that quickeneth (quickeneth, literally, on the race-course) look favourably." Ariston hydr he declares indeed, and the actual prize, as we know, was in itself ...

— Greek Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater

... minds, and Agesipolis was eager to ascertain from the soldiers how close his predecessor had advanced to the fortification walls; or again, how far he had gone in ravaging the open country—not unlike a competitor in the pentathlon, (8) eager to cap the performance of his rival in each event. On one occasion it was only the discharge of missiles from the towers which forced him to recross the trenches round the walls; on another, profiting by the absence ...

— Hellenica • Xenophon

Words linked to "Pentathlon" : athletic contest, athletics