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

"It is like we have won the gold medal tonight."

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

The 2024 Olympic silver medalist could be in line to end a three-decade gold medal drought in 2028.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2026

After training in at Bradford School of Art, he went on to study at the Royal College of Art, graduating with a gold medal distinction.

From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026

Shortly after graduating with a gold medal, Hockney had his first solo exhibition in Kasmin's gallery.

From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026

And to top things off, in August, in Los Angeles, Ulbrickson had watched his counterpart at Cal, Ky Ebright, win the sport’s most coveted award, an Olympic gold medal.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

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