# pentathlon

> English word · Noun · frequency rank #82,652

## Definitions
1. An ancient athletics discipline, featuring five events: stadion, wrestling, long jump, javelin and discus
2. Ellipsis of women's pentathlon (“a 20th-century athletics discipline for women, the women's counterpart of the men's decathlon, the predecessor to the women's heptathlon, featuring five events: hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, and a run”).
3. Ellipsis of modern pentathlon, a discipline with five events based on late-19th century basic military skills.

## Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek πένταθλον (péntathlon), from πέντε (pénte, “five”) + ἆθλον (âthlon, “contest”). By surface analysis, penta- + -athlon.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/pentathlon