medal

See also: Medal, and meðal

English

The National Geographic Society's "Hubbard Medal"

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], from Middle French medaille, medale, from Italian medaglia (originally "half a denarius"), from Early Medieval Latin medālia, feminine derived via dissimilation (/dj–lj/ > /d–lj/) from mediālia, neuter plural of Late Latin mediālis (“middle”, adj), from Classical Latin medius.

Pronunciation

• enPR: mĕdʹ-əl, IPA^(key): /ˈmɛdəl/
  • (UK) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛd.ɫ̩]

    • Audio (Received Pronunciation):

      (file)

    • Audio (UK):

      (file)

    • Homophone: meddle
  • (US) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛɾ.ɫ̩]
    • Homophones: meddle, metal, mettle
  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˈmeɾ.ɫ̩]
    • Homophones: meddle, metal, mettle
• Rhymes: -ɛdəl

Noun

medal (plural medals)

1. A stamped metal disc used as a personal ornament, a charm, or a religious object.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , II.i.3:

     Whether their images, shrines, relics, consecrated things, holy water, medals, benedictions, those divine amulets, holy exorcisms, and the sign of the cross, be available in this disease?

2. A stamped or cast metal object (usually a disc), particularly one awarded as a prize or reward.

Derived terms

• bronze medal
• gold medal
• medal game
• medalist
• medal play
• medal table
• putty medal
• silver medal
• tea and medals
• what do you want, a medal

 

Related terms

• medalet
• medallic
• medallion
• medallist
• medallurgy

 

Descendants

• → Japanese: メダル (medaru)
• → Korean: 메달 (medal)
• → Persian: مدال (medâl)

Translations

stamped metal disc

• Afrikaans: medalje (af)
• Albanian: medalja f
• Amharic: ሽልማት (šəlmat)
• Arabic: مِيدَالِيَة f (mīdāliya), مِِيدَالْيَة f (midālya), وِسَام m (wisām)

  Hijazi Arabic: ميدالية f (mīdāliyya), وِسام m (wisām)

• Armenian: մեդալ (hy) (medal)
• Azerbaijani: medal (az)
• Bashkir: миҙал (miźal)
• Basque: domina (eu)
• Belarusian: меда́ль f (mjedálʹ)
• Bengali: তকমা (bn) (tokma), পদক (bn) (podok), মেডেল (bn) (meḍel)
• Breton: medalenn (br) f
• Bulgarian: меда́л (bg) m (medál)
• Burmese: ဆုတံဆိပ်ရှင် (hcu.tamhciphrang), ဆုရှင် (hcu.hrang)
• Catalan: medalla (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 獎章／奖章 (zh) (jiǎngzhāng), 勳章／勋章 (zh) (xūnzhāng), 勛章／勋章 (zh) (xūnzhāng)

• Czech: medaile (cs) f
• Danish: medalje c
• Dutch: medaille (nl) m or f, erepenning (nl) f
• Erzya: ловмоярмак (lovmojarmak)
• Esperanto: medalo
• Estonian: medal (et)
• Faroese: heiðursmerki, medalja
• Finnish: mitali (fi)
• French: médaille (fr) f
• Galician: medalla (gl) f
• Georgian: მედალი (medali)
• German: Medaille (de) f
• Greek: μετάλλιο (el) n (metállio)
• Gujarati: પદક m (padak), ચંદ્રક m (candrak)
• Hebrew: מֵדַלִיָה (he) f (medaliya)
• Hindi: पदक (hi) m (padak), मेडल (hi) m (meḍal), तकमा (hi) m (takmā), तमगा (hi) m (tamgā), तमग़ा m (tamġā), तक्मा (hi) m (takmā), बिल्ला (hi) m (billā)
• Hungarian: érem (hu), medália (hu)
• Hunsrik: Mëtallia f
• Icelandic: minnispeningur m, medalía f
• Ido: medalio (io)
• Indonesian: medali (id)
• Irish: bonn m
• Italian: medaglia (it) f
• Japanese: 賞牌 (ja) (しょうはい, shōhai), メダル (ja) (medaru), 勲章 (ja) (くんしょう, kunshō)
• Kazakh: медаль (medal)
• Khmer: មេដាយ (km) (meedaay), ឥស្សរិយាភរណៈ (əhsa’ri’yiepʰea’rea’na’)
• Korean: 메달 (ko) (medal)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: medalya (ku)

• Kyrgyz: медаль (medal)
• Ladin: bedaia f
• Lao: ຫລຽນ (līan), ຫຣຽນ (rīan)
• Latin: medalis
• Latvian: medaļa f
• Lithuanian: medalis m
• Macedonian: медал m (medal)
• Malay: pingat (ms)
• Malayalam: സ്മാരകമുദ്ര (smārakamudra), ബിരുദമുദ്ര (birudamudra), പതക്കം (ml) (patakkaṁ)
• Maltese: midalja f
• Marathi: पदक n (padak), बिल्ला m (billā)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Nepali: पदक (padak), तक्मा (takmā)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: medalje

  Nynorsk: medalje

• Occitan: medalha (oc) f
• Ossetian: медаль (medalʹ)
• Ottoman Turkish: مدالیه (madalya)
• Persian: مدال (fa) (medâl)
• Polish: medal (pl) m
• Portuguese: medalha (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਤਮਗ਼ਾ (tamġā), ਮੈਡਲ (maiḍal)
• Romanian: medalie (ro) f
• Russian: меда́ль (ru) f (medálʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: bonn-cuimhne m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: медаља f

  Roman: medalja (sh) f

• Sicilian: middaghia f
• Slovak: medaila f
• Slovene: medalja (sl) f
• Somali: billad, bilada
• Sotho: metlele
• Spanish: medalla (es) f, presea (es) f
• Swahili: nishani (sw)
• Swedish: medalj (sv) c
• Tagalog: medalya
• Tajik: медал (medal)
• Tamil: பதக்கம் (ta) (patakkam)
• Telugu: బిరుదు బిళ్ళ (te) (birudu biḷḷa), పతకం (patakaṁ)
• Thai: เหรียญ (th) (rǐian)
• Tibetan: རྟགས་མ (rtags ma)
• Turkish: madalya (tr)
• Turkmen: nyşan, medal
• Ukrainian: меда́ль f (medálʹ)
• Urdu: تمغا f (tamġā), میڈل m (meḍal)
• Uzbek: medal (uz)
• Vietnamese: huy chương (vi), mề đay (vi)
• Walloon: medaye (wa)
• Welsh: bathodyn m, medal m
• West Frisian: medalje
• Yiddish: מעדאַל f (medal)

Verb

medal (third-person singular simple present medals, present participle medaling or medalling, simple past and past participle medaled or medalled)

1. (intransitive, sports, colloquial) To win a medal.

   He medalled twice at the Olympics.

   • 2004 October 29, Carol McAlice Currie, “Unposted laws make downtown seem unwelcoming”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 1C:

     I dashed into the mall; bought a gift; raced to the card store, snapped up a two-fer gift-bag special and was back in my car in 26 minutes. I could medal in power shopping.

   • 2011 September 1, Harry Pearson, “London 2012 can legacy by verbing the noun”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Vocab-wise, medalling and PB-ing are now totally part-and-parcelled, and most experts in South Korea believe podiumed, finalled and all-comered are not far off lexiconing.

   • 2013 January 13, “Je Ne Sais What?”, in The Good Wife, season 4, episode 12, spoken by Anna (Elizabeth Alderfer):

     I wanted to medal. I was pregnant and I wanted to medal.

   • 2022 March 9, Andrew Lawrence, “Brittney Griner’s Russian ordeal is a byproduct of WNBA’s shoestring funding”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     In 2008, after being passed over yet again for USA Basketball’s Beijing Olympics team, San Antonio Stars all-star Becky Hammon signed a four-year, $2m contract with CSKA Moscow that included a six-figure bonus for becoming a naturalised citizen and medaling at the Games.

   • 2024 July 30, Beau Dure, “What’s tougher than competing in an Olympic sport? Competing in two”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     Rebecca Romero medaled in rowing and track cycling in 2004 and 2008, joining East German swimmer-turned-handball player Roswitha Krause and several swimmers/divers as two-sport medalists.

   • 2024 August 20, Edward Helmore, “Five-time Olympian cyclist found dead in Las Vegas after choking on food”, in The Guardian‎^[4]:

     Though she never medalled at the Olympics, she did win a pair of golds at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador in 2002.

2. (transitive) To award a medal to.

See also

• final
• podium

Anagrams

• Delma, damel, delam, lamed

Azerbaijani

Etymology

From French médaille, from Italian medaglia.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

medal (definite accusative medalı, plural medallar)

1. medal

Declension

Declension of medal
	singular	plural
nominative	medal	medallar
definite accusative	medalı	medalları
dative	medala	medallara
locative	medalda	medallarda
ablative	medaldan	medallardan
definite genitive	medalın	medalların

Possessive forms of medal
	nominative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	medalım	medallarım
sənin (“your”)	medalın	medalların
onun (“his/her/its”)	medalı	medalları
bizim (“our”)	medalımız	medallarımız
sizin (“your”)	medalınız	medallarınız
onların (“their”)	medalı or medalları	medalları
	accusative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	medalımı	medallarımı
sənin (“your”)	medalını	medallarını
onun (“his/her/its”)	medalını	medallarını
bizim (“our”)	medalımızı	medallarımızı
sizin (“your”)	medalınızı	medallarınızı
onların (“their”)	medalını or medallarını	medallarını
	dative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	medalıma	medallarıma
sənin (“your”)	medalına	medallarına
onun (“his/her/its”)	medalına	medallarına
bizim (“our”)	medalımıza	medallarımıza
sizin (“your”)	medalınıza	medallarınıza
onların (“their”)	medalına or medallarına	medallarına
	locative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	medalımda	medallarımda
sənin (“your”)	medalında	medallarında
onun (“his/her/its”)	medalında	medallarında
bizim (“our”)	medalımızda	medallarımızda
sizin (“your”)	medalınızda	medallarınızda
onların (“their”)	medalında or medallarında	medallarında
	ablative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	medalımdan	medallarımdan
sənin (“your”)	medalından	medallarından
onun (“his/her/its”)	medalından	medallarından
bizim (“our”)	medalımızdan	medallarımızdan
sizin (“your”)	medalınızdan	medallarınızdan
onların (“their”)	medalından or medallarından	medallarından
	genitive
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	medalımın	medallarımın
sənin (“your”)	medalının	medallarının
onun (“his/her/its”)	medalının	medallarının
bizim (“our”)	medalımızın	medallarımızın
sizin (“your”)	medalınızın	medallarınızın
onların (“their”)	medalının or medallarının	medallarının

Derived terms

• medalçı

Further reading

• “medal” in Obastan.com.

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian медаль (medalʹ)

Noun

medal

1. medal.

Declension

Declension of medal

	singular	plural
nominative	medal	medaller
genitive	medalniñ	medallerniñ
dative	medalge	medallerge
accusative	medalni	medallerni
locative	medalde	medallerde
ablative	medalden	medallerden

References

• Mirjejev, V. A., Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk‎^[5], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN
• “medal”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

Estonian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

medal (genitive medali, partitive medalit)

1. medal

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

• hõbemedal
• kuldmedal
• pronksmedal

Further reading

• “medal”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009

Polish

Medals engraved by Polish artist Zbigniew Kotyłło

Alternative forms

• mental (Far Masovian)

Etymology

Borrowed from French médaille.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.dal/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛdal
• Syllabification: me‧dal

Noun

medal m inan (diminutive medalik, related adjective medalowy)

1. medal (stamped metal disc)

Declension

Declension of medal

	singular	plural
nominative	medal	medale
genitive	medalu	medali
dative	medalowi	medalom
accusative	medal	medale
instrumental	medalem	medalami
locative	medalu	medalach
vocative	medalu	medale

Derived terms

nouns

• medalier
• medalista
• medalistka

 

Related terms

adjectives

• medalierski
• medalionowy

 

adverb

• medalowo

 

nouns

• medaliera
• medaliernia
• medalierstwo
• medalikarz
• medalion
• medalionik

 

Further reading

• medal in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• medal in Polish dictionaries at PWN