parkour

play

noun par·kour \ pär-ˈku̇r , ˈpär-ˌku̇r \

Definition of parkour

:the sport of traversing environmental obstacles by running, climbing, or leaping rapidly and efficiently

Recent Examples of parkour from the Web

There’s a brief orientation to get your familiar with the equipment, but not much instruction on parkour or strategy.

— melinda fulmer, latimes.com, "Turns out, laser tag is an incredibly fun way to get in a workout," 19 Aug. 2017
Despite the many subjects, the band is still front and center performing amateur parkour, scrapping and jamming in 100-degree weather.

— bryan kress, Billboard, "Chase Atlantic Say 'Keep It Up' to Living It Up in New Video: Exclusive Premiere," 10 Aug. 2017
The moves, of which there are many, are meticulously choregraphed and feature a blend of martial arts, parkour, dance, aerial acrobatics, tumbling and traditional gymnastics, with a bit of pyrotechnics and motorcycles thrown in for good measure.

— patrick shanley, The Hollywood Reporter, "What It's Like to Fight a Real Superhero at Marvel's New Live Show," 7 July 2017
The meet-up tends to attract up to 40 flow artists, parkour athletes, acrobats, gymnasts, and musicians.

— elizabeth narins, Cosmopolitan, "1.6 Million People Have Watched This Tree-Flipper Upstage 2 Acroyogis," 30 June 2017
Featuring a more mature (23-year-old) Spider Man, swing between New York City skyscrapers, use parkour to nimbly scale obstacles, and engage in stealth and combat sequences.

— marc saltzman, USA TODAY, "The best explosive new action games," 17 June 2017
A class with Kelley is a master class in outdoor parkour technique.

— nicole tsong, The Seattle Times, "Don’t worry about working out: Just get up, and keep moving.," 14 June 2017
Your child will enjoy martial arts, dance, parkour, art, ninja obstacle class, trampoline and more!

— South Florida Parenting, "After Care and Camps," 9 June 2017
Members of the local parkour community are also psyched about Spider Money locating in Colorado.

— megan mitchell, The Denver Post, "Aurora’s Spider Monkey Extreme Air Sports opens indoor trampoline park, parkour arena," 6 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'parkour.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of parkour

French, alteration of parcours course, route, from Medieval Latin percursus, from Latin percurrere to run through, from per- + currere to run

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 2002

See Words from the same year