Meaning & use
physical fitness
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The state of having a healthy, strong body able to handle exercise and everyday effort without tiring too soon.
Grammar: No plural or article: physical fitness improves with practice.
Patterns
- improve your physical fitness
- level of physical fitness
Regular walking can improve your physical fitness without expensive equipment.
The army tests recruits for physical fitness before they begin training.
His physical fitness declined after he stopped playing football.
noununcountable
A school subject or program of activities aimed at building strength, stamina and flexibility.
Grammar: Often a course or class name: a physical fitness class.
Patterns
- a physical fitness class
- a physical fitness test
Our school holds a physical fitness test every spring.
She teaches a physical fitness course at the community center.
Physical fitness lessons were my favorite part of the week.
Common combinations
- improve physical fitness
- Swimming is a good way to improve physical fitness.
- maintain physical fitness
- Firefighters must maintain their physical fitness all year.
- physical fitness test
- He passed the police physical fitness test on his first try.
- a high level of physical fitness
- Mountaineering demands a high level of physical fitness.
- build physical fitness
- The program helps older adults build physical fitness safely.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fitness
- Fitness alone is the shorter everyday word; physical fitness makes clear you mean the body, not mental readiness.
- stamina
- Stamina is only the ability to keep going for a long time, a single part of physical fitness.
- conditioning
- Conditioning is the training that produces fitness, especially in sport, rather than the state itself.
Opposites
Word family
- fit adjective
- in good physical condition
- fitness noun
- the condition of being fit
- physical adjective
- relating to the body
- physically adverb
- in a way that concerns the body
Commonly confused: physical fitness or physical education?
physical fitness vs physical education
Physical education is the school subject; physical fitness is the condition of the body that the lessons try to build.
Practice
Climbing the stairs without getting out of breath is a sign of good ______.
Choose one answer.
Physical fitness is how well the body handles effort. Therapy treats injury, evidence proves a case and an address is a location.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “physical fitness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.