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

Illustration of discus

Examples of discus in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Flavor Flav and Alexis Ohanian took care of it Veronica Fraley, a U.S. discus thrower at the Paris Olympics, was having financial trouble back home. Los Angeles Times, 26 Dec. 2024 During the Paris Olympics over the summer, he was dedicated to the U.S. squad, pledging $1,000 and a cruise for all the members of the U.S. Women’s Water Polo team and helping to cover rent costs for 24-year-old discus thrower Veronica Fraley. Rania Aniftos, Billboard, 18 Dec. 2024 Fraley was named the 2024 SEC Field Athlete of the Year, 2024 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and won bronze in discus at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Mary Whitfill Roeloffs, Forbes, 16 Aug. 2024 Fraley, 24, won the NCAA discus title this year before finishing third at U.S. Olympic trials to secure a place on the team in Paris. Jenna West, The Athletic, 2 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for discus 

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of discus was in 1581

Dictionary Entries Near discus

Cite this Entry

“Discus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discus. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

Kids Definition

plural discuses
: a heavy disk that is hurled for distance in a track-and-field event
also : the event

Medical Definition

: any of various rounded and flattened anatomical structures

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