Meaning & use
sprint
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To run at full speed for a short distance, often as part of a race.
Grammar: No object; you can sprint somewhere: She sprinted to the bus.
Patterns
- sprint to something
- sprint for something
- sprint across something
He sprinted the last hundred meters and won the race.
When the rain started, we sprinted back to the car.
The children sprinted across the playground to the gate.
nouncountable
A short, very fast run or race.
Grammar: Countable: a sprint, the final sprint, several sprints.
Patterns
- a sprint for something
- win the sprint
- in a sprint
She won the 100-meter sprint at the school sports day.
He made a final sprint for the finish line.
The race ended with a close sprint between two runners.
nouncountablecomputingbusiness
A short period of intense work with a fixed deadline, especially in software development.
Grammar: Countable and common in business and computing contexts: a two-week sprint.
Patterns
- a sprint of two weeks
- during the sprint
- plan a sprint
Our team finished the new feature in a two-week sprint.
We plan the work for each sprint on Monday morning.
The sprint review showed that most tasks were completed on time.
Word forms
| third person singular | sprints |
|---|---|
| past tense | sprinted |
| past participle | sprinted |
| -ing form | sprinting |
| plural | sprints |
Common combinations
- sprint to the finish
- She sprinted to the finish and raised her arms.
- a final sprint
- The runners began their final sprint with 200 meters to go.
- sprint across the road
- He sprinted across the road just before the lights changed.
- a two-week sprint
- The team completed the design work in a two-week sprint.
- sprint planning
- Sprint planning takes place at the start of every cycle.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dash
- Dash suggests a sudden, brief burst of speed, often in an emergency, while sprint is more controlled and can be a race.
- race
- Race can mean any competition of speed, including long distances, but sprint usually refers to a short distance.
- bolt
- Bolt is informal and emphasizes running away suddenly, whereas sprint simply means running fast.
Opposites
Word family
- sprinter noun
- A person who runs short, fast races.
- sprinting noun
- The activity or sport of running short, fast races.
Commonly confused: sprint or sprint?
sprint vs sprint
Do not confuse sprint with 'spirit' (courage or mood): the sounds are similar but the meanings are very different.
Practice
The team completed the project in a two-week ___ .
Choose one answer.
'Sprint' is the countable noun that fits after 'a two-week'. 'Sprinting' is the -ing form and 'sprinted' is a past verb, so neither can follow 'a two-week' as a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sprint”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.