race

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A competition to see who or what is the fastest.

   She won the 100-metre race at the school sports day.

2. 2
   noun

   A competition to win something, such as an election or a position.

   Three candidates are now in the race for president.

3. 3
   noun

   One of the major groups that humans are sometimes divided into based on physical features such as skin colour.

   The law protects people of every race from discrimination.

4. 4
   verb

   To move or do something very quickly because there is little time.

   We raced to the station but still missed the train.

Common collocations

• chariot race Noun + noun
• obstacle race Noun + noun

1560s, via Middle French race from Italian razza (early 14th century), of uncertain origin. Partially displaced native Middle English kinde (“kind, type, sort, race, nature”), whence English kind. theories * Diez and some other scholars suggest derivation from Proto-Germanic *raitō (whence Old High German reiza (“line”) and Old Norse ríta (“to score, log, outline”)), perhaps via Lombardic *raiza (“line”), which Körting notes is a literal rendering of Latin linea sanguinis (“bloodline of descent”). Anatoly Liberman says "the semantic fit is good" but the chronology falters; he says the Germanic…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images