olympiad

1. (sports, sometimes proscribed) Synonym of Olympic Games: an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.Examples: "Victors at the ancient Olympiads only won an olive wreath but were usually freed from paying taxes for the remainder of their life, but modern Olympians have frequently needed to pay taxes on the market value of their gold, silver, or bronze medals."; "It was their [the priests of Jupiter Olympius's] Buſineſs, alſo not only to regiſter the Names of the Victors in the ſeveral Games, with other Matters relating to them, but alſo whatever occurr'd remarkable, during the Intervals between the Celebration of every Olympiad."; "Strabo […] makes Corœbus the firſt Victor at the firſt Olympiad of Iphitus; who, he ſaies, was the Reſtorer of them. This Olympiad was in the Year before Chriſt 776."Synonyms: Olympic Gamesproscribedsometimes

2. (by extension, usually preceded by descriptive words) 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.Examples: "the International Mathematical Olympiad... the Science Olympiad... the International Science Olympiads... the Women's Chess Olympiad..."; "The Junior Olympiad track and field meet was a major special event with 276 entrants."; "Selected competitively from more than 400,000 high school students to represent the United States in the 19th International Mathematical Olympiad in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, July 5–6, an 8-man team emerged victorious over teams from 20 other nations. […] Credited with developing the International Mathematics Olympiad in 1959 is Rumania, the winner that year in competition with Bulgaria, Czechosolvakia, Poland, German Democratic Republic, and Soviet Union. […] The idea of a U.S. Mathematical Olympiad was spawned in 1971 when Prof. Nura D. Turner of SUNY (State University of New York), Albany, authored an article in the American Mathematical Monthly that led in 1972 to the USA Mathematical Olympiad."broadly