Meaning & use
aquatics
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
Water sports as a group, including swimming, diving, and water polo.
Grammar: Treated as singular and uncountable, so it takes a singular verb: Aquatics is a popular category at the Olympics.
Patterns
- aquatics at a competition
- compete in aquatics
She competes in aquatics, focusing on the 200-meter butterfly.
The Olympic aquatics program includes swimming, diving, and water polo.
Common combinations
- aquatics center
- The new aquatics center has an Olympic-size pool.
- aquatics program
- The university's aquatics program offers lessons for all ages.
- aquatics competition
- He won a gold medal at the national aquatics competition.
Synonyms and how they differ
- water sports
- This is the everyday term and includes activities like surfing and rowing; aquatics is more formal and often refers to the Olympic category.
Word family
- aquatic adjective
- Relating to water or happening in water.
Commonly confused: aquatics or athletics?
aquatics vs athletics
Athletics covers running, jumping, and throwing events, not water sports.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'aquatics' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Aquatics' is an uncountable noun that takes a singular verb, so 'Aquatics is' is correct. 'Aquatics are' is wrong because the word is not treated as a plural count noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “aquatics”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.