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If you've ever watched the Tour de France on television, you've seen the peloton, the brightly colored pack of riders making up the central group. You may have also gained some inadvertent insight into the word itself, which as you may have guessed is French in origin. In French, "peloton" literally means "ball," but it is most often used with the meaning "group." It's frequently used in the bicycling context, just as in English, but it can also refer to a group in a marathon or other sporting event. French peloton can also mean "squad" or "platoon," and since we’ve told you that you probably won’t be too surprised to learn that it is also the source of our word platoon.
Examples of peloton in a Sentence
Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 28 July 2025
Simmons, donning his iconic handlebar mustache and American flag road champion’s jersey, was seen at the front of the peloton nearly every day for three weeks.
—Alicia Victoria Lozano, NBC news, 27 July 2025
Garcia, 41, held off a fast-approaching group of general classification favourites in the final kilometre to claim her biggest career win as the oldest rider in the peloton.
—Jessica Hopkins, New York Times, 28 July 2025
Stage 20 sends the peloton on a challenging 184.2 km route from Nantua to Pontarlier, deep in France's Jura region, with nearly 3,000 meters of climbing on tap.
—Kilty Cleary, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for peloton
Cite this Entry
“Peloton.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peloton. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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