Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Gymnastic exercises designed to develop muscular tone and promote physical well-being: Sit-ups, trunk twists, and other calisthenics are demonstrated on the videotape.
- n. The practice or art of such exercises: Calisthenics is recommended to relax the muscles before a run.
Wiktionary
- n. plural Gymnastic exercises, especially morning exercises, done to keep one's body healthy.
- n. singular A system of such exercises.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The science, art, or practice of healthful exercise of the body and limbs, to promote strength, gracefulness, and general fitness; light gymnastics.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the practice of calisthenic exercises
- n. light exercises designed to promote general fitness
Etymologies
- From Greek kalli-, beautiful (from kallos, beauty) + sthenos, strength; see segh- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“As freshmen we hadn’t actually attended them, but the main feature of the night was called calisthenics, and it was some cheesy aerobics routine.”
“He was so clumsy he couldn't even do the side-straddle-hop in calisthenics.”
“We come now to what I may call the calisthenics of the business, exercises which may be roughly compared to the technical exercises necessary in learning to play a musical instrument.”
“I heard Horton ask how many participants have his P90X program, and a good many hands went up among the hundred or so runners stretching and limbering up, doing what we used to call calisthenics before fitness became a multibillion-dollar industry”
“I do calisthenics, which is basically using your own body weight, like you do in yoga, to strengthen your core.”
“They were not allowed to learn dancing; they had no outdoor games at all, not even croquet -- nothing whatever to exhilarate them and develop them physically except an hour's "deportment," the very mildest kind of calisthenics, in the big class-room once a fortnight, and the daily making of their little beds.”
The Beth Book Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius
“Body weight drills such as calisthenics and plyometrics keep your nervous system sharp.”
“I am a big proponent on implementing training methods such as calisthenics, plyometrics, and various other body resisted movements.”
“Each morning they woke up at 5:30 a.m., went for a 45-minute run, followed by stretching and calisthenics, he said.”
The Wall Street Journal: Length of Libya's Standoff Hinges on Leader's Militia
“It's not calisthenics, aerobics, exercise or a workout.”
The Huffington Post: Kelly Moore: How To Avoid Getting Hurt In A Yoga Class
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘calisthenics’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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calli-, cal-
good, beautiful
callipygean, calisthenics, calligraphy, callimastian, callisteia, calliandra, Callicrates, callidity, Callimachus, calliope, callitriche, callisaurus and 10 more...
widdershins According to Wikipedia, it comes from the Greek words kalos, 'beautiful' and sthénos, 'strength'. Dec 26, 2007