Paralympic

How to spell paralympic

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce paralympic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does paralympic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the international sporting competition for athletes with physical or visual impairments, held alongside the Olympic Games.

Paralympic in a sentence

• She won three gold medals at the paralympic swimming events.

• The city spent years preparing venues for the paralympic summer games.

Where does paralympic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is a modern blend word, coined in the twentieth century to name the elite international competition for athletes with disabilities. It was originally formed from 'paraplegic' joined to 'Olympic', because the early Stoke Mandeville games of the late 1940s, organised by the neurologist Ludwig Guttmann, were for competitors with spinal injuries. As the event grew to include athletes with a far wider range of impairments, the meaning of the first part was quietly reinterpreted to the Greek-derived prefix 'para-', meaning 'beside' or 'alongside', so that the word now reads as the games held parallel to and alongside the Olympics. The Olympic element itself traces back through Latin to Greek Olympia, the sanctuary in the Peloponnese where the ancient athletic festivals were staged in honour of Zeus. The International Paralympic Committee adopted the name officially, and the spelling trap lies in remembering the single 'l' and the 'paral' joint, since the word is one fused blend rather than 'para' plus 'olympic' written out in full.

How the word is built

• para- (alongside, parallel to)
• -lympic (from Olympic)