Medalist

How to spell medalist

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce medalist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does medalist mean?

1. nounA person who has been awarded a medal, especially for finishing among the top competitors in a sporting or academic contest.

Medalist in a sentence

• The gold medalist stood proudly on the highest step of the podium.

• Every Olympic medalist received a small government grant for training.

Where does medalist come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on 'medal' plus the agent suffix '-ist', which marks a person associated with a thing. 'Medal' itself travelled into English in the late 1500s from the French medaille, which came from the Italian medaglia, a small commemorative or prize coin. Trace it back further and you reach a Vulgar Latin form medalia, thought to derive from the Late Latin medialis, meaning 'of the middle' or 'half', because the original coin was reckoned as worth half of a standard piece. The suffix '-ist' arrived in English through French and ultimately from the Greek '-istes', used for a person who practises or is connected with something. The single 'l' in this American and Canadian spelling reflects the usual rule that a final stressed-but-light syllable does not double its consonant before a suffix; British writers instead keep the doubled 'medallist', which is the spelling most likely to trip people up.

How the word is built

• medal (a metal disc awarded for achievement)
• -ist (one who does or wins)

Words that sound like medalist

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• medallist: A person who has been awarded a medal, especially for winning or placing in a sporting contest.