workout
Americannoun
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workouts
plural
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a trial or practice session in athletics, as in running, boxing, or football.
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a structured regime of physical exercise.
She goes to the gym for a workout twice a week.
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any trial or practice session.
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an act or instance of working something out.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of workout
First recorded in 1890–95; noun use of verb phrase work out
Explanation
A workout is an exercise session. If you hope to join your school's track team, you'd better be prepared for regular workouts. If you do yoga, lift weights, or run with your dog, you can call each of these activities a workout. When it's a verb, workout becomes two separate words: work out. So you can either say "I work out three days a week" or "I usually do three workouts a week." When this noun first appeared around the turn of the 20th century, it referred specifically to a practice boxing match.
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 sprint workout also altered more than 200 metabolites and rapidly increased levels of proteins involved in blood vessel growth, tissue remodeling, and hormonal signaling.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
"What I'm putting in my body is good fuel and energy and teff has so much. It energises you so much before a workout and it gives you the fibre you need."
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Some tricks to relieve stress: From the archives, yoga teacher Sara Pam Neufeld shares a workout that takes seconds—and could actually improve your quality of life.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
During training camp, Donald did a workout in front of defensive line coach Giff Smith and Rams trainers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Navigating a busy athletic facility during peak workout hours posed a challenge for the agents on my security detail, but they managed it well.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
He has worn a sleeve on his forearm in subsequent workouts on his home courts in Murcia and has been practising with Holger Rune in recent weeks.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Auto-tracking: Screenless trackers log workouts automatically using movement and pulse readings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
That includes small things such as no meetings after workouts, said cornerback Trent McDuffie, who played his first four NFL seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
The findings support once weekly brisk interval walking as a practical therapeutic option for adults with central obesity, especially those who have difficulty fitting several workouts into their schedules.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 2, 2026
Last year, Justin would at least take the bus with me whenever he didn’t have practice or workouts.
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
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.
