# athletic

Pronunciation: say "ath-LET-ik" /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/

## Adjective

1. Having a muscular, well-developed body and being physically fit.
   - Simple: Having a strong body with well-built muscles and good fitness.
   - _Years of rowing gave him a lean, athletic build._
   - _The dancers were remarkably athletic, all toned muscle and stamina._
2. Inclined toward sports and physical exercise; physically active.
   - Simple: Enjoying sports and lots of moving around.
   - _The whole family is highly athletic, filling weekends with soccer and cycling._
   - _She stayed athletic well into her seventies, swimming every day._
3. Relating to athletes or to sports and physical competition.
   - Simple: Connected with sports players and the games they play.
   - _The university expanded its athletic department this year._
   - _Several athletic scholarships were offered to the top recruits._
4. Describing a motion or play that demands fine physical skill and coordination.
   - Simple: Showing great physical skill in a move or play.
   - _The shortstop made an athletic dive to stop the grounder._
   - _Critics praised the dancer's athletic, gravity-defying jumps._
6. Of a Super Mario level: emphasizing platforming challenge, with precise jumps between floating platforms above a bottomless pit and upbeat background music.
   - Simple: In Super Mario games, describing a level built around tricky jumps between floating platforms, with upbeat music.
   - _The third world opens with an athletic level demanding pixel-perfect jumps over the void._
   - _Speedrunners dread the athletic stages, where one mistimed leap means falling into the pit._

## Noun

5. A person of muscular, large-boned build, as classified in Ernst Kretschmer's typology of body types.
   - Simple: A person with strong muscles and big bones, in one old system of body types.
   - _Kretschmer would have labeled the wrestler an athletic without hesitation._
   - _Of the forty patients in the ward, only one was a true athletic, broad in the shoulders and heavy in the bone._

## Origin

Borrowed from Middle French "athletique" and Latin "āthlēticus", from Ancient Greek "athlētikós" ("relating to an athlete"), from "athlētḗs" ("athlete"). It is equivalent to "athlete" plus the suffix "-ic".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/athletic (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).