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Glite Dictionary
🏅 International sports event 🏛️ Ancient Greek festival
Olympic Games

Olympic Games

2 2.1
An ancient Greek festival at Olympia every four years with athletic competitions to honor Zeus
  • noun
  • /oʊˈlɪmpɪk ɡeɪmz/
translation icon : Juegos Olímpicos antiguos
  • At the first recorded Olympic Games in 760 BC, there was only one event: a footrace.
  • the ancient Olympic Games
  • the first Olympic Games

Examples

  • In the year 776 BC, the first Olympic Games were held here.

  • I mean, the ancient Olympic Games, the most prestigious, the most important contest was the four horse horse race, chariot race for one thing.

  • GREECE: Olympia, home to the famed Temple of Zeus and the original Olympic Games, is commonly thought to have been destroyed by an earthquake and covered by river floods.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The ancient Olympic Games featured archery with tethered doves as targets.

Synonyms

Olympian Games
vsOlympic Games
7.2

An ancient Greek festival at Olympia with sports and religious ceremonies held every four years to honor Zeus

has identical meaning but is a variant name form

Surface Forms

Olympic Games singular
Olympic Games plural

Morphology

Olympic + game

The meaning is directly compositional: 'Olympic' (relating to the Olympics) + 'Games' (sporting competitions) yields the notion of sporting competitions held under the Olympic name. Although knowledge of the ancient festival's historical details (Zeus, 776 BC) is specialized, the general concept of periodic multi-sport competitions is immediately clear to a learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

The ancient Olympic Games were named after the place Olympia, where people from all over Greece came 'every four years' to watch athletes compete and to honor Zeus, and winners were crowned with olive wreaths. This is why the ancient festival was both a sacred ceremony and a famous sports contest.