workout
Americannoun
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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:
“We’re trying to shift the classical barre workout to be more contemporary through the music and the environment,” owner Kim Thompson says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
ClassPass, the popular app for booking workout classes, added tourist attractions to the mix this week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Outside, there is a small poolhouse that provide another place for storage—or an area that could be transformed into an office or workout room.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
At first glance, the reel resembled the workout videos he usually posted.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
On June 26 Smith was set to give Seabiscuit his last pre-race workout.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Kusturica is expected to arrive in Westwood early next month and join team basketball workouts that began on Thursday and continue for eight weeks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
He said that his father's "spirit lives on in gym workouts around the world, continuing to help people fall in love with fitness".
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
They began cooking most meals at home, using olive oil instead of butter, and doing family workouts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Their workouts and healthy-eating regimens are no longer sufficient.
From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2026
He threw up regularly during the off-season workouts.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
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.
