Olympiad

Etymology
From the forms, , and  of  and  from  and , from  whose  form was  or ), from  whose plural form was , from , the town in ancient Greece where the games were held, + , from either  or  +.

The use of olympiad for academic competitions aspiring to the level of the Olympic Games was first popularized by the, a calque of its name.

Noun

 * 1) A four-year period, particularly  those based on 's computations of the ancient Olympic Games which placed 's footrace victory in   and  those based on the modern  Olympic Games first held in.
 * : an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * : an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * : an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * : an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * : an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.
 * 1)  A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.

Usage notes
The forms 1st Olympiad, second Olympiad, Third Olympiad, etc. can be used for either the ancient or modern games. Some sources discuss the ancient Olympiads as 5-year cycles but only do so using ; the actual span of known games was always a four-year period. Because of its close association with the Olympic Games, Olympiad is generally capitalized although some writers prefer lower-case, particularly for generic four-year periods or general discussions of international academic competitions.

The ancient olympiads are usually written in the form Olympiad 1, ''Ol. 2'', etc. with Arabic numerals. They may be variously abbreviated with their years, with those of Olympiad 3 being variously written as ''Ol. 3/1, Ol. 3/₂, Ol. 3, 3, Ol. 3. 4.'' in different scholarly sources. There are some 2nd century Roman inscriptions which date the Olympics from a new epoch after 's refurbishment of the Olympieion in 131 (Ol. 227) but this was never in general use. The convention is usually to date the ancient years from the midsummer Olympic contests, so that the first months of 1 were in the fourth year of Olympiad 194 and the latter months in the first year of Olympiad 195. This is often simplified to the point of using July 1 in the Julian or Gregorian calendar as the beginning of each Olympiad rather than using the various 12 and 13-month lunisolar or solar calendars of the governments controlling Olympia during each of the specific games.

The modern olympiads are officially written in the form the I Olympiad, the II Olympiad, etc. with Roman numerals. They are not typically abbreviated or used to number individual years. The modern olympiads are only used in reference to the and not commonly used for any other purpose; even the  are not reckoned using olympiads but are simply counted as they occur. Modern olympiads are dated from the beginning of the Gregorian calendar year in which the Summer Olympics occur: the I Olympiad began on 1 January 1896 and ended on 31 December 1899; this system continues to run even when the games are not held (as during World War II) or delayed (as during the coronavirus epidemic).

Synonyms

 * See

Translations

 * Afrikaans: Olimpiade
 * Arabic: أُولِمْبْيَاد, أُولِمْبِيَّة
 * Armenian:
 * Old Armenian: ողոմպիադ
 * Asturian: Olimpiada
 * Basque: olinpiada
 * Breton: Olimpiadenn
 * Bulgarian: Олимпиада
 * Catalan:
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 奧林匹克週期
 * Danish: olympiade
 * Dutch:
 * Esperanto: olimpiado
 * Estonian: Olümpiaad
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Galician: olimpíada
 * Georgian: ოლიმპიადა
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Ancient: Ὀλυμπιάς
 * Hebrew: אוֹלִימְפְּיָאדָה
 * Hindi: ओलम्पियाड
 * Hungarian:
 * Ido:
 * Indonesian: Olimpiade
 * Interlingua: olympiade
 * Irish:
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: オリンピアード
 * Korean: 올림피아드
 * Latin: Olympias
 * Malay: olimpiad
 * Middle English: Olimpias, Olympias
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: olympiade
 * Persian:
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Russian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: олимпијада
 * Roman:
 * Slovak: olympiáda
 * Slovene: olimpijada
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:
 * Tagalog: Olimpyada
 * Turkish: Olimpiyat
 * Ukrainian:
 * Urdu: اولمپکیاڈ
 * Welsh: Olympiad


 * Danish: olympiade
 * French:
 * Greek:
 * Indonesian: Olimpiade
 * Irish:
 * Polish:
 * Tagalog: Olimpyada


 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:, 奧林匹克競賽,  ,
 * Indonesian: Olimpiade
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian: olimpiada