half-marathon

noun

half-mar·​a·​thon ˈhaf-ˈmer-ə-ˌthän How to pronounce half-marathon (audio)
-ˈma-rə-
plural half-marathons
: a footrace run on an open course that is half the distance of a marathon (13 miles, 192.5 yards, or 21.1 kilometers)
Then, in late September, … Goucher ran a U.S. best in the half-marathon, beating the women's marathon world-record holder, Britain's Paula Radcliffe, by nearly a minute.Alexander Wolff
Having just completed a half-marathon in the UK's Great North Run on Tyneside, I was surprised to find that my legs felt stiffer two days after the event than they were the following day.Melanie Trickett

Examples of half-marathon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The independent race organizer had just hosted a half-marathon, which the twins had participated in, and they were hyped to run in a heat with Gunna. Abe Beame, Rolling Stone, 4 Sep. 2025 Their dream is to run competitively in a half-marathon, which is approximately 13 miles in distance. Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025 In April, the Chinese government organized a half-marathon in Beijing in which robots and human runners raced one another. Janis MacKey Frayer, NBC news, 19 Aug. 2025 The model won a half-marathon in April against human runners and is being developed into an all-around competitor. Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 19 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for half-marathon

Word History

First Known Use

1932, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of half-marathon was in 1932

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Cite this Entry

“Half-marathon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/half-marathon. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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