half-marathon

noun

half-mar·​a·​thon ˈhaf-ˈmer-ə-ˌthän 

-ˈma-rə-

plural half-marathons

: a footrace run on an open course that is half the distance of a marathon (13 miles, 192.5 yards, or 21.1 kilometers)

Then, in late September, … Goucher ran a U.S. best in the half-marathon, beating the women's marathon world-record holder, Britain's Paula Radcliffe, by nearly a minute.

—Alexander Wolff

Having just completed a half-marathon in the UK's Great North Run on Tyneside, I was surprised to find that my legs felt stiffer two days after the event than they were the following day.

—Melanie Trickett

Examples of half-marathon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Over two days in late April, the Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, theme park became a path for a 5K, 10K and half-marathon (along with a Kids Fun Run). —Nathan Diller, USA Today, 28 Apr. 2026

Honor One of the robots that took part in the humanoid half-marathon in Beijing this month managed to break a real person's previous record — as well as that of another robot. —Lexi Lane, PEOPLE, 25 Apr. 2026

Building parity with humans is a challenge A humanoid robot ran faster than the human world record in a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday, but getting a machine to interact and compete at split-second speeds with skilled human athletes is in some ways a more difficult challenge. —Matt O’Brien, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2026

At the end of a half-marathon, runners are usually wiped out. —Adriana James-Rodil, FOXNews.com, 22 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1932, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for half-marathon

• agamemnon
• automaton
• diencephalon
• panopticon
• phenomenon
• aileron
• antiphon
• autobahn
• carillon
• castellan
• celadon
• cephalon