English

Noun

race ‎(countable and uncountable, plural races)

1. A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. Several horses run in a horse race, and the first one to reach the finishing post wins

   The race around the park was won by Johnny, who ran faster than the others.

   We had a race to see who could finish the book the quickest.

   • 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, "," New York Times (retrieved 2 November 2012):

     After days of intensifying pressure from runners, politicians and the general public to call off the New York City Marathon in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, city officials and the event’s organizers decided Friday afternoon to cancel the race.

2. A progressive movement toward a goal.
3. A fast-moving current of water, such as that which powers a mill wheel.
4. Swift progress; rapid course; a running.
   • Francis Bacon

     The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any beasts.

5. Competitive action of any kind, especially when prolonged; hence, career; course of life.
   • Milton

     My race of glory run, and race of shame.

6. Travels, runs, or journeys. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. The bushings of a rolling element bearing which contacts the rolling elements.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

race ‎(third-person singular simple present races, present participle racing, simple past and past participle raced)

1. (intransitive) To take part in a race (in the sense of a contest).

   The drivers were racing around the track.‎

2. (transitive) To compete against in such a race.

   I raced him to the car, but he was there first, so he got to ride shotgun.‎

3. (intransitive) To move or drive at high speed.
   • 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:

     Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."

   As soon as it was time to go home, he raced for the door.‎

   Her heart was racing as she peered into the dimly lit room.‎

4. (intransitive) Of a motor, to run rapidly when not engaged to a transmission.
   • 1891 (December) Arthur Conan Doyle, The Man with the Twisted Lip:

     "My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built."

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French race, from Italian razza, of uncertain origin.

Noun

race ‎(countable and uncountable, plural races)

1. A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics:
   1. A large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage (compare ethnic group). See Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race.
      • 1913, Martin Van Buren Knox, The religious life of the Anglo-Saxon race
   2. A large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of common physical characteristics, such as skin color or hair type.

      Race was a significant issue during apartheid in South Africa.

      • 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 164:

        Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?

      The Native Americans colonized the New World in several waves from Asia, and thus they are considered part of the same Mongoloid race.

   3. A large group of sentient beings distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage (compare species, subspecies).

      A treaty was concluded between the race of elves and the race of men.

      • 1898, Herman Isidore Stern, The gods of our fathers: a study of Saxon mythology, page 15)

        There are two distinct races of gods known to Norse mythology[.]

2. (taxonomy) A population geographically separated from others of its species that develops significantly different characteristics; an informal term for a subspecies.

   Nevertheless, as our varieties certainly do occasionally revert in some of their characters to ancestral forms, it seems to me not improbable, that if we could succeed in naturalising, or were to cultivate, during many generations, the several races, for instance, of the cabbage, in very poor soil (in which case, however, some effect would have to be attributed to the direct action of the poor soil), that they would to a large extent, or even wholly, revert to the wild aboriginal stock.‎

   Charles Darwin

3. A breed or strain of domesticated animal.
   • Shakespeare

     For do but note a wild and wanton herd, / Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, / Fetching mad bounds.

4. (figuratively) A category or species of something that has emerged or evolved from an older one (with an implied parallel to animal breeding or evolutionary science).

   The advent of the Internet has brought about a new race of entrepreneur.

   Recent developments in artificial intelligence has brought about a new race of robots that can perform household chores without supervision.

5. (obsolete) Peculiar flavour, taste, or strength, as of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicates origin or kind, as in wine; hence, characteristic flavour.
   • Shakespeare

     a race of heaven

   • Massinger

     Is it [the wine] of the right race?

6. (obsolete) Characteristic quality or disposition.
   • Shakespeare

     And now I give my sensual race the rein.

   • Sir W. Temple

     Some […] great race of fancy or judgment.

Synonyms

• subspecies
• breed
• variety

Derived terms

Related terms

• racism
• racial
• racy

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle French, from Latin radix.

Noun

race ‎(plural races)

1. A rhizome or root, especially of ginger.
   • 1842, Gibbons Merle, The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper's Manual, page 433:

     On the third day after this second boiling, pour all the syrup into a pan, put the races of ginger with it, and boil it up until the syrup adheres to the spoon.

Translations

Statistics

Anagrams

• acre, Acre
• care

References

• Diez, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen, "Razza."
• Notes:

1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Eric Voegelin, The History of the Race Idea: From Ray to Carus, volume 3
2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Anatoly Liberman, The Oxford Etymologist Looks at Race, Class and Sex (but not Gender), or, Beating a Willing Horse
3. ↑ Diez, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen, "Razza."
4. ↑ Giacomo Devoto, Avviamento all'etimologia italiana, Mondadori

Danish

Etymology 1

From French race, from Italian razza.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /raːsə/, [ˈʁɑːsə]

Noun

race c (singular definite racen, plural indefinite racer)

1. race (racial category)
2. breed

Inflection

Etymology 2

From the English noun race.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɛjs/, [ˈɹɛjs]

Noun

race n (singular definite racet, plural indefinite race)

1. a race (a contest where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective)
2. a rush

Inflection

Synonyms

• ræs

Etymology 3

From the English verb race.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɛːsə/, [ˈʁɛːsə]

Verb

race ‎(imperative race, infinitive at race, present tense racer, past tense racede, perfect tense er/har racet)

1. to race (to compete in a race, a contest where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective)
2. to rush

Synonyms

• ræse

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eːs

• IPA^(key): /reːs/

Etymology

From English race.

Noun

race f ‎(plural races, diminutive racejes n)

1. Speed contest, race

Derived terms

• raceauto
• racebaan
• racefiets
• racen

Verb

race

1. first-person singular present indicative of racen
2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of racen
3. imperative of racen

French

Etymology

From Italian razza, from Old High German reiza ‎(“line”), or possibly from Arabic رَأْس ‎(raʾs, “head”). Alternatively, razza may have been borrowed from Old French haraz ‎(“culture of horses”) as well. Another theory is that the Italian word came from Latin ratio (the nominative, as opposed to ragione from the accusative rationem, which nonetheless was attested with a similar sense to razza in the late Middle Ages; ratio also came to mean "idea" or "conception of something" in Ecclesiastical Latin), and underwent a change of gender later from an original form *razzo, or else derived ultimately from generatio through apheresis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁas/
• Rhymes: -as

Noun

race f ‎(plural races)

1. race (classification)
2. kind
3. (zoology) breed

Synonyms

• (kind, type): espèce

Related terms

References

• “race” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• acre, âcre, care, créa

Middle French

Noun

race f (plural races)

1. race; breed
   • 1595, Michel de Montaigne, Essais, book II, chapter 11:

     Je le doy plus à ma fortune qu’à ma raison : Elle m’a faict naistre d’une race fameuse en preud’hommie, et d’un tres-bon pere

     I owe more to my luck than to my intelligence. It was luck that meant I was born into a race famous for it's gentlemanliness, and to a very good father

Polish

Noun

race f

1. nominative plural of raca
2. accusative plural of raca
3. vocative plural of raca