Gymnastics

How to spell gymnastics

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce gymnastics

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gymnastics mean?

1. nounPhysical exercises and competitive routines that develop strength, balance, and agility, often performed on apparatus such as bars, beams, and mats.

Gymnastics in a sentence

• She took up gymnastics at the age of six and trained every weekend.

• The local sports centre offers gymnastics classes for adults and children.

Where does gymnastics come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek adjective gymnastikos, meaning 'fond of or skilled in bodily exercise', which itself grew from the verb gymnazein, 'to train or exercise'. The startling root underneath all of this is gymnos, the Greek word for 'naked', because athletes in ancient Greece traditionally trained and competed without clothing. The Greeks even called the place where young men exercised a gymnasion, the direct ancestor of our 'gymnasium' and 'gym'. The term passed through Latin as gymnasticus before settling into English in the late sixteenth century to describe systematic physical training, and the plural -ics form, on the model of words like 'athletics', came to name the organised sport we know today. Remembering that the opening 'gym' is the same chunk found in 'gymnasium' helps fix the tricky 'gymn' spelling, where the silent flow from 'y' to 'mn' often trips writers up.

How the word is built

• gymn- (from Greek gymnos: naked)
• -ast- (agent/practice element)
• -ics (noun suffix naming a field or activity)