runner-up
Americannoun
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runners-up
plural
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the competitor, player, or team finishing in second place, as in a race, contest, or tournament.
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runners-up, the competitors who do not win a contest but who place ahead of the majority of the contestants and share in prizes or honors, as those who place second, third, and fourth, or in the top ten.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of runner-up
First recorded in 1835–45
Explanation
In a competition, the runner-up is usually the person who comes in second place. In the Olympics, an athlete who wins a silver medal can be called a runner-up. In beauty pageants, there are often first, second, and third-place winners, followed by a runner-up. At the state fair, if your pig gets a blue ribbon and your sister's gets a red one, it means your pig won, and your sister's pig was the runner-up. The earliest use of this word, in the 1840s, was in dog racing.
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:
The young ’un is Trey McKinney, a wiry prodigy who broke into Elite Series fishing in his teens and has twice finished runner-up for Angler of the Year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
The Zambian opposition leader who was runner-up in this month's disputed presidential election surrendered to police on Thursday after two weeks in hiding following a summons over an alleged national security threat, state media reported.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
Rival Jannik Sinner is well clear at the top of the world rankings, having won Wimbledon in July, while Zverev won the French Open and finished runner-up at SW19.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Last year, there was one: Journalism, who sandwiched a win in the Preakness around runner-up finishes in the Derby and Belmont.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
She might have won first place the last four years, but my runner-up status was nothing to sneeze at.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Victory at one of the events earns you £15,000, while runners-up receive £10,000.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
But, after snapping up Fernando Torres for a then-British record fee from Liverpool the following January, Ancelotti was swiftly shown the door after Chelsea finished as runners-up in his second season.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
This time, they are in 21/28 predictions, with five people backing them to be runners-up.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
When Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, the runners-up: the bid team of Cohen and Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The reporter has already started discussing the Wardraft runners-up wild cards who will replace me and Ren.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
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.
