gold medal

American

noun

a medal, traditionally of gold or gold color, awarded to a person or team finishing first in a competition, meet, or tournament; championship medal.

gold medal British

noun

a medal of gold, awarded to the winner of a competition or race Compare silver medal bronze medal

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

gold medalist

noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

gold medals

plural

Etymology

Origin of gold medal

First recorded in 1905–10

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.

See Examples For:

gold medal

Foreman rose to fame after winning a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics before becoming heavyweight champion in 1973.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

The only other time he has asked for money was when he fundraised for care, support and specialist equipment for gold medal Paralympian, David Smith who has terminal cancer.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

Each Nobel prize comes with a diploma, a gold medal and a cheque for $1.2 million, to be presented on December 10.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Janet Evans then won her fourth gold medal in Barcelona.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026

Earlier, we'd huddled together to see those three, along with Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber, climb onto the podium for the team gold medal ceremony.

From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023