workout
Americannoun
-
workouts
plural
-
a trial or practice session in athletics, as in running, boxing, or football.
-
a structured regime of physical exercise.
She goes to the gym for a workout twice a week.
-
any trial or practice session.
-
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:
I compared Cirqa’s workout logs with recordings from a chest strap, the gold standard for heart rate accuracy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Maximilien licked the straw from an iJooz machine in Goldhill Centre on 12 March, in one of the city-state's more affluent neighbourhoods, after a boxing workout, Channel News Asia reported.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
“The center of social gravity has moved from the nightclub to the workout, the class and the calmer room.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Still, the workout — the whole Body Dada experience, in fact — felt chill and unassuming.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
But they still hadn’t timed a single workout for Seabiscuit since he arrived at Santa Anita a month before.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Auto-tracking: Screenless trackers log workouts automatically using movement and pulse readings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
McVay does not do that as often, but he still engages players throughout workouts.
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
"You can't stop the Earth from turning or the years from passing," Lula muses in his gravelly voice in one of the social media videos he shares showcasing his workouts.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
Smith knew Seabiscuit was improving rapidly, but when he sent him out for workouts before the track dockers, he gave him only easy gallops that veiled his speed.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
