Meaning & use
quarterfinal
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Meaning
nouncountable
A match or round in a knockout competition whose winners move on to the semifinals.
Grammar: Takes an or the; the plural quarterfinals often names the whole stage of a tournament.
Patterns
- play a quarterfinal against someone
- reach the quarterfinals
- win or lose a quarterfinal
The team plays a quarterfinal against the host nation on Friday.
After reaching the quarterfinals, the young boxer lost a close match.
Word forms
| plural | quarterfinals |
|---|
Common combinations
- reach the quarterfinals
- The school team reached the quarterfinals for the first time in ten years.
- quarterfinal match
- Tickets for the quarterfinal match sold out in an hour.
- win a quarterfinal
- A late goal helped them win a quarterfinal and reach the last four.
- home quarterfinal
- Fans hoped the national side would earn a home quarterfinal.
Synonyms and how they differ
- last eight
- Informal phrase for the eight players or teams left; quarterfinal names the deciding round more precisely.
- semifinal
- Not a synonym: it is the next round, played by the four winners of the quarterfinals.
Word family
Commonly confused: quarterfinal or semifinal? quarterfinal or qualifier?
quarterfinal vs semifinal
A quarterfinal leaves four winners; a semifinal is played later by four teams or players.
quarterfinal vs qualifier
A qualifier decides who enters a tournament; a quarterfinal happens inside the main knockout stage.
Practice
In a knockout tournament, the round just before the semifinals is the ___.
Choose one answer.
Winners of the quarterfinals become the four semifinalists; the final is later, and the group stage is earlier or a different format.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quarterfinal”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.