different between exercise vs workout

English

Alternative forms

• exercice (obsolete; noun senses only)

Etymology

From Middle English exercise, from Old French exercise, from Latin exercitium.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??k.s?.sa?z/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??k.s?.sa?z/
• Hyphenation: ex?er?cise

Noun

exercise (countable and uncountable, plural exercises)

1. (countable) Any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability.
   • an exercise of the eyes and memory

2. (countable, uncountable) Activity intended to improve physical, or sometimes mental, strength and fitness.

   • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.
3. A setting in action or practicing; employment in the proper mode of activity; exertion; application; use.
   • December 8, 1801, Thomas Jefferson, first annual message

     exercise of the important function confided by the constitution to the legislature

   • O we will walk this world, / Yoked in all exercise of noble end.

4. The performance of an office, ceremony, or duty.

   I assisted the ailing vicar in the exercise of his parish duties.

   • Lewis […] refused even those of the church of England […] the public exercise of their religion.
5. (obsolete) That which gives practice; a trial; a test.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

exercise (third-person singular simple present exercises, present participle exercising, simple past and past participle exercised)

1. To exert for the sake of training or improvement; to practice in order to develop.

2. (intransitive) To perform physical activity for health or training.

3. (transitive) To use (a right, an option, etc.); to put into practice.
4. (now often in passive) To occupy the attention and effort of; to task; to tax, especially in a painful or vexatious manner; harass; to vex; to worry or make anxious.
5. (obsolete) To set in action; to cause to act, move, or make exertion; to give employment to.

Translations

See also

• train
• work out

Further reading

• exercise in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• exercise in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

work +? out

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w??k.a?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?w?k.a?t/

Noun

workout (plural workouts)

1. An exercise session; a period of physical exercise.
   • 2008, Jim Montgomery, Mo Chambers, Mastering Swimming, page 157

     The following guidelines for smart weekly scheduling can simplify this piece of the planning: Swim three or four workouts each week.

2. A schedule or program of specific exercises, especially one intended to achieve a particular goal.
   • 2007, Peter Twist, Complete Conditioning for Hockey, page 170

     If athletes do too much too soon, they will be stiff and sore 24 to 48 hours after a new workout.

   • 2010, Mark Alvisi (quote from a reader), "Mark of a Champion", Muscular Development 47(1): 350

     I read in another magazine about a workout that can put a whole inch on your arms in just one day!

3. (by extension) Any activity that requires much physical or mental effort, or produces strain.
   • 2001, Jan Karon, A Common Life: The Wedding Story, page 41

     Cynthia's phone got a workout, as well. In approximately three days since the news had hit the street, a total of five bridal showers had been booked, not to mention a luncheon at Esther Cunningham's and tea at Olivia Harper's.

Related terms

• work out

Translations

Anagrams

• outwork