tourney
Americannoun
-
tourneys
plural
verb (used without object)
-
tourneys,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tourneyed,
past participle, past
-
tourneying
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
tourneysimple
-
tourneyssimple
-
have tourneyedperfect
-
has tourneyedperfect
-
am tourneyingprogressive
-
are tourneyingprogressive
-
is tourneyingprogressive
-
have been tourneyingperfect progressive
-
has been tourneyingperfect progressive
Past
-
tourneyedsimple
-
had tourneyedperfect
-
was tourneyingprogressive
-
were tourneyingprogressive
-
had been tourneyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tourney
1300–50; (v.) Middle English tourneyen < Old French torneier < Vulgar Latin *tornidiāre to wheel, keep turning; (noun) Middle English tourneie < Old French tournei, derivative of tourneier. See turn
Explanation
A tourney is a tournament: a sporting event that consists of a series of games that result in a champion. Tourney is an informal word for a tournament. A tourney is a series of games with a bunch of different teams or individuals. Tennis events like Wimbledon are tourneys. The playoffs for the NBA, NFL, and NHL are tourneys. In a tourney, you have to beat more than one team to become the champion or overall winner, and there are different rounds in which you face different opponents. A single sporting event — like a boxing match — is not a tourney.
Vocabulary lists containing tourney
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Tolkien Reading Day, List 11
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
The Ruins of Gorlan
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Near the start, when Dunk reluctantly accepts Egg as his squire, he set the terms of their relationship in a dark field outside the town where the tourney that births their legend takes place.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026
Dominic Loehle delivers the winning basket to break a 42-42 tie with 25 seconds left in Heritage Christian’s 45-42 win over Anaheim Canyon in tourney semi at Sonora.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2025
Kang Ae-sim and Yang Dong-geun portray an elderly woman and her failson who enter the tourney to erase his mountainous debt.
From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2024
Hatem had decided to ride out March with the men, who entered the ACC tourney on a four-game skid and needing to win the whole thing to reach March Madness amid uncertainty about Keatts’ future.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
"The talk in the yard is we shall have a tourney, my lord," Jory said as he resumed his seat.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
And there’s all-time chess great Magnus Carlsen, who netted $3.25 million for sponsorships during international chess tourneys like the FTX Crypto Cup.
From Slate ● Oct. 18, 2023
After missing two straight tourneys, Matta announced in June 2017 that he was stepping down, citing his health.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 3, 2022
"I believe in these guys. I really do," said Chris Beard, who led the Red Raiders in five Big 12 tourneys but will be there with Texas for the first time.
From Fox News ● Mar. 8, 2022
Even in tourneys where knights display unadulterated mounted skills by putting lances through rings and other challenges, there’s room for audience participation.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 24, 2021
It was as a tourney champion that I had won her hand and heart, so I entered other tourneys for her sake, but the magic was gone.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
His rede the heroes followed / and tourneyed in full stately way.
From The Nibelungenlied Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original by George Henry Needler
Then the general tourney began, and, in double file, and much increased in numbers, our company sallied forth, and, as it behoved them, tourneyed bravely.
From The Book of the Duke of True Lovers by Christin? de Pisan
And the devise of a castle of cloth of gold, set with pomegranates about the battlements, with shields of knights hanging therefrom; and six knights in rich harness tourneyed.
From Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth by Lucy Aikin
In the days of Henry VIII. a chronicler tells of a jouster who "tourneyed in harneyse all of gilt from the head piece to the sabattons."
From Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages A Description of Mediaeval Workmanship in Several of the Departments of Applied Art, Together with Some Account of Special Artisans in the Early Renaissance by Julia de Wolf Gibbs Addison
Thus they tourneyed together, one with an axe and the other with a sword, a long season, and no man to let them.
From Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) by Jean Froissart; Thomas Malory; Raphael Holinshed
The latter part of this prolix autobiography is occupied by a detailed account of a long tourneying trip, which he contrived as a parallel to his Venus-journey, this time under the disguise of King Arthur.
From Studies in Medi?val Life and Literature by Edward Tompkins McLaughlin
Of a great tourneying in the Joyous Isle, and how Sir Pervivale and Sir Ector came thither, and Sir Percivale fought with him.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 2 by Sir Thomas Malory
How Sir Uwaine rode with the damosel of sixty year of age, and how he gat the prize at tourneying.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Sir Thomas Malory
There is nothing but tourneying, love-making, and enchantment.
From A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers
Finally, the marriage was celebrated on January 24th, 1527, at St. Germain-en-Laye, where, as Sauvai records, "there were jousts, tourneying, and great triumph for the space of eight days or thereabouts."
From The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.) by George Saintsbury
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.
