Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏃 A ten-event athlete 🧑‍💼 A multi-skilled person
decathlete

decathlete

1 5.8
An athlete who competes in ten track and field events
  • noun
  • /dɪˈkæθliːt/
: decatleta
  • Now this is not to diminish Eaton's accomplishments; however, prior decathletes have set WRs and won Olympic gold.
  • Olympic decathlete
  • former decathlete
  • college decathlete

We've sent over The Olympian, the decathlete Kardashian.

Examples

  • Dan O'Brien, a world champion decathlete, won a gold medal at the Olympics after years of hard training.

  • Deion Sanders: We're going to look back on two-sport athletes one day the way we think of decathletes.

    Blog text (31)

  • He was also a very famous Olympic decathlete in 1912.

    Academic text (1996)

  • We've sent over The Olympian, the decathlete Kardashian.

    Theo Von

  • Remember, this is a guy who is the fastest decathlete of all time (across all of the running events) and is a 27-foot long jumper.

    Blog text (31)

  • I'm in Putney, outside Daily, Thompson's gym, Daily Fitness, Come inside where I'm going to interview probably the best decathlete the world has ever seen.

  • Two-time Olympic decathlete.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • The popular media, for example, has referred to its use by many top-flight Olympians, such as former gold-medal decathletes Bill Toomay, Rafer Johnson, and Bruce Jenner.

    Academic text (1991)

  • At the State Finals of the Illinois Academic Decathlon, participants compete as decathletes in various academic challenges.

  • The rigorous training regimen required for a decathlete includes events like running, jumping, and throwing.

Synonyms

athlete
vsdecathlete
659 2.0

A person who trains for and competes in sports

is a specialist who competes in ten specific track and field events

Surface Forms

decathlete singular
decathletes plural

Morphology

decathlete = athlete (transparent) = deca + athlete

Built from the combining form 'deca' (ten) + 'athlete' to mean an athlete who competes in ten events (a decathlon), a directly inferable sports term.

Etymology

Decathlete combines the prefix deca- meaning 'ten' and the familiar word athlete meaning 'sportsperson'. So a decathlete is literally someone who competes in ten track and field events.