gymnasticsnoun [ U ]
uk/dʒɪmˈnæs.tɪks/us/dʒɪmˈnæs.tɪks/B1 physical exercises and activities performed inside, often using equipment such as bars and ropes, intended to increase the body's strength and the ability to move and bend easily:
the US women's gymnastics team
figurative Legal arguments require incredible mental/verbal gymnastics (= the ability to think/speak cleverly and quickly).
More examples
- I quite liked gymnastics at school - doing handstands and cartwheels and jumps over the apparatus.
- Did you watch the Olympic men's gymnastics? Their routines on the high rings and the parallel bars were amazing.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Gymnastics
- asymmetric bars
- beam
- cartwheel
- free running
- gym
- gymnast
- handstand
- headstand
- horse
- pommel horse
- ring
- somersault
- stand
- stand on your hands/head idiom
- the parallel bars
- trampoline
- trapeze
- uneven bars
- vault
gymnastic
adjective [ before noun ] uk/dʒɪmˈnæs.tɪk/us/dʒɪmˈnæs.tɪk/
B2
a gymnastic display