discus

noun

dis·​cus ˈdi-skəs 

plural discuses

: a heavy disk (as of wood or plastic) that is thicker in the center than at the perimeter and that is hurled for distance as a track-and-field event

also : the event

Illustration of discus

Examples of discus in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Allman, who became the first American woman to win two Olympic gold medals in discus last summer in Paris, was named the Colorado Sportswoman of the Year by Sportswomen of Colorado on Sunday night. —Kyle Newman, The Denver Post, 9 Mar. 2025

The finals: men’s pole vault (1 p.m. ET), women’s discus (2:30 p.m. ET), women’s 5,000-meter (3:15 p.m. ET) and women’s 800-meter (3:47 p.m. ET). —Hunter Patterson, The Athletic, 4 Aug. 2024

The men’s discus will be on Aug. 5 at 3 a.m.; the men’s shot put will be on a Aug. 2 at noon; the men’s 800 meters will be on Aug. 7 at 3 a.m.; the men’s 100-meter will be on Aug. 3 at 3 a.m. The men’s decathlon is on atAug. —Lawrence Dow, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 July 2024

Unfortunately Fraley just missed the cut for the final in the women's discus competition Friday, placing 13th among those in the qualifying round. —Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 5 Aug. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin discus, borrowed from Greek dískos "discus," in Late Greek also "dish, round mirror, the sun's disk, gong," of uncertain origin

Note: For English loanwords going back to dískos see dais, desk, dish entry 1, and disk entry 1. Greek dískos is generally said to be a derivative of the verb dikeîn "to throw, cast, fling" (aorist only), presumably as a simplification of *dikskos, with a suffix -sk-. P. Chantraine is certain of this in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, but less confident in La formation des noms en grec ancien, where this etymology is followed by a question mark (p. 405). Clearly, if such a suffix existed in Greek, the evidence is meager (and the productivity of the diminutive suffix -isko- is not relevant). R. Beekes (Etymological Dictionary of Greek) suggests that the earlier form was *diks-, which together with dikeîn is of non-Indo-European substratal origin, citing Edzard Furnée, Die wichtigsten konsonantischen Erscheinungen des Vorgriechischen (Mouton, 1972), p. 297.

First Known Use

1581, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing discus

• the discus

Rhymes for discus

• viscous
• viscus
• hibiscus
• meniscus

Kids Definition

discus

noun

dis·​cus ˈdis-kəs 

plural discuses

: a heavy disk that is hurled for distance in a track-and-field event

also : the event

Medical Definition

discus

noun

dis·​cus ˈdis-kəs 

plural disci -ˌkī  -kē 

: any of various rounded and flattened anatomical structures