time trial

American

noun

Sports.

a race in which competitors are timed individually on a set distance over a course or track, especially to qualify for a successive event.

time trial British

noun

(esp in cycling) a race in which the competitors compete against the clock over a specified course

"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

time-trialling

noun

Etymology

Origin of time trial

First recorded in 1855–60

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:

time trial

The 28-year-old McNulty has long been a top American, especially in the race-against-the-clock format of the time trial.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

“I posted a better time than what I had planned with my team, so I can’t complain about my race,” he said after the time trial.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

So it’s no coincidence that Evenepoel is a multiple world and Olympic champion in the individual time trial, a pure exercise of power and efficiency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

Comins, 52, was nine minutes into a cycling time trial on the A40 near Raglan, Monmouthshire, when Barbu tried to overtake.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

On the evening of June 17, Al Ulbrickson kicked things up a notch and staged a time trial of his own.

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