runner-up
Americannoun
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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:
Young has form at The Open, having finished runner-up in the 150th Open at St Andrews in 2022 and joint eighth the following year.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Perhaps reuniting with Umberto Rispoli, the jockey who was aboard Journalism for the last eight of his nine straight wins or runner-up finishes, will provide a boost.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
He’s not doing the thing he’s done better than anyone ever has, which is taking the trophy, and not pretending to enjoy the runner-up plate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
One idea in that vein was put forward by Nirav Shah, an epidemiologist and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was a runner-up in Maine’s recent Democratic gubernatorial primary.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
There, dressed up as kindly old Mother Paula herself, was none other than Kimberly Lou Dixon, the former Miss America runner-up.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
Croatia embraced the match in 2022 despite having gone one better in 2018 when they were runners-up to France - though Morocco head coach Walid Regragui described it as a "booby prize".
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
The midfielder recovered in time to win the World Cup with Spain in 2023 and was part of the squad that finished runners-up to England at Euro 2025.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
The meeting of three-time World Cup runners-up the Netherlands and 2022 semi-finalists Morocco in Monterrey, Mexico, is probably the hardest tie of the round to call.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
She won the World Cup with Spain in 2023 and was part of the squad that finished runners-up to England at Euro 2025.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
It was what separated the queens from the runners-up.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
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.
