fitness
Americannoun
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fitness
plural
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capability of the body of distributing inhaled oxygen to muscle tissue during increased physical effort.
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Also called Darwinian fitness. Biology.
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the genetic contribution of an individual to the next generation's gene pool relative to the average for the population, usually measured by the number of offspring or close kin that survive to reproductive age.
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the ability of a population to maintain or increase its numbers in succeeding generations.
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noun
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the state of being fit
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biology
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the degree of adaptation of an organism to its environment, determined by its genetic constitution
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the ability of an organism to produce viable offspring capable of surviving to the next generation
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Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fitness
Explanation
Fitness is good physical condition. If you're a fitness nut and you're constantly working out, everybody else at the gym might be eyeing your sculpted muscles with envy and marveling at your stamina and strength. Fitness can also refer to your being fit, or qualified, for something. If you show up in ragged jeans and a dirty t-shirt to interview for a job in the clean room of a microchip factory, your interviewer might question your fitness for the position. For a ship, fitness is a measure of whether it's seaworthy. In biology, an organism's fitness for a particular environment is its ability to survive and reproduce in those conditions.
Vocabulary lists containing fitness
Word Generation Science - Life Science
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Physical Education - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Rather than focusing exclusively on long workouts or ambitious fitness goals, people may benefit from finding small opportunities to move throughout the day.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
Those data points are scored against other competitors of the same gender and age group, and against the fitness and lifestyle habits of the average American man and woman.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
On social media, influencers and fitness experts garner millions of views and likes on videos blaming cortisol for an array of concerns from belly fat to hair loss to “moon face.”
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2026
According to city records first reported by Santa Monica Daily Press, the Victorian will be converted into a members club including a pool, spa, fitness center and coffee bistro.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Now I was standing in a large modern fitness center lined with exercise equipment and weight machines, all of which could be perfectly simulated by my haptic suit.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
