tournament
8
9.5
- noun
- /ˈtʊrnəmənt/
- Archaic
:
torneo
- During the tournament, spectators cheered for their favorite knights as they showcased their skills.
Examples
-
The herald came forward again and called out, "This tournament is sponsored by Arthur of Wales."
Fiction book (1991) -
And then, one day... ...his father was killed in a tournament.
-
Would you have Sir Ulrich win the tournament for you?
-
In times of peace, the knights would ride tournaments, to keep their skills sharp and to practise the chivalries of battle.
-
A joust is a sports tournament in which knights fight each other on horseback with swords and light spears called javelins.
Academic text (2010) -
The knights prepared their armor for the grand tournament held in the village square.
-
The king announced a tournament to celebrate the anniversary of his reign, inviting all the nobles to attend.
Synonyms
396
2.3
An event where people or teams compete to win
1
9.9
A medieval contest where knights fight to win a prize
Compounds
1
4.5
A competition where losers leave after each round until one winner remains
Surface Forms
Morphology
tournament = tourn + ment
Despite the apparent suffix '-ment', the word comes through historical French formation and the root is not a productive English base, so the medieval sense is not transparently predictable from modern English morphemes.
Etymology
Tournament originally meant a series of jousts between knights. The word comes from torner 'to turn' because knights took repeated 'turns' or rides against one another, so a medieval tournament was a set of contests to show skill and win a prize.