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Glite Dictionary
personal record

personal record

2 3.2
Someone's best result in a sport or activity
  • noun
  • /ˈpɜrsənl ˈrɛkərd/
translation icon : récord personal
  • He was thrilled to break his personal record in the high jump, clearing six feet.
  • set a personal record
  • new personal record
  • beat their personal record

And so I represented Team USA twice at the Pan Am Games where I, I set my personal record, and then at the Austin Marathon that I won.

Examples

  • Portis' time of 9:52.01 is a new personal record in the 3,000m.

    Blog text (1)

  • Doing this type of thing in an ancient castle made it that much more special, and a few people even set some personal records.

    Blog text (9)

  • I competed my first marathon in six years training half the amount and beat my personal record by 23 minutes.

    What the Health (2017)

  • "My personal record in the Champions League is 4 goals in 6 matches with Real Madrid in 07-08.

    Blog text (6)

  • Remy has been a runner since 1994 and has run 21 marathons (including six Bostons), with a personal record of 2:46.

    Blog text (23)

  • After months of practice, she finally achieved a personal record of 2:30 in the marathon.

  • Setting a new personal record of 15 seconds this season has motivated him to train even harder.

Synonyms

record
vspersonal record
∞ 3.2

A list of past results and achievements by a team or person

focuses on the single top result rather than the whole performance history
personal best
vspersonal record
11 3.5

A person's best ever result in an activity or sport

is the neutral formal term referring to the same top achievement
PR
vspersonal record
4 3.3

A person's best result in a sport or activity

is the longer formal phrase rather than the short abbreviation

Antonyms

worst
1.2

To the greatest degree in a bad way

Surface Forms

personal record singular
personal records plural

Morphology

personal + record

The meaning 'the best result an individual has attained' is directly derivable from 'personal' (belonging to a particular person) + 'record' (a documented best performance). This adjectival + noun composition is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The phrase personal record comes from sports, where people write down their own best times or scores. The word personal means 'your own' and record means 'the best result', so the phrase means 'your highest achievement'.