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:
It was understandable, therefore, why Zheng found a first-round defeat in Paris this year difficult to take - even if it was to eventual runner-up Maja Chwalinska after nine months on the sidelines.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
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
If Walter were to sell the Dodgers, a long line of interested parties could include the runner-up when he bought the team in 2012: Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Although she had been raised to ten dollars a week when she went on reading, her runner-up received twenty-five dollars a week and the other readers received twenty.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
They were runners-up at 2022's Under-19 Euros, beaten by England in extra-time in the final, and would go on to make the semi-finals of 2023's Under-20 Euros.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
As well as finishing as Premier League runners-up, he took the club to the Champions League final in 2018-19.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
Five English teams will try to stop them with Arsenal the favourites to better their runners-up slot from last year.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
I would go for PSG to reach the last four, Bayern close runners-up and Arsenal to win it.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
On the fuzzy black-and-white screen, Gary Collins starts announcing the runners-up.
From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles
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.
