Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1800-1900
Origin: Marathon, place in Greece; from the story that in 490BC a Greek soldier ran about 25 miles from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens, to bring news of the Athenian victory over the Persians

marathon

1 noun
     
Related topics: Other Sports
mar‧a‧thon1 [countable]
1DSO a long race of about 26 miles or 42 kilometres:
the Boston Marathon
Garcia ran the marathon in just under three hours.
2 an activity that continues for a long time and needs a lot of energy, patience, or determination:
We finished the job but it was quite a marathon.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary