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by Liz Walter

Today’s post is the second of a pair covering words and phrases connected with competitions and contests of all types (you can find the first post here). This post focuses on vocabulary associated with winning and losing.

Someone who is winning a competition is in the lead. If they take the lead, they move into a winning position. If they are a long way ahead, we might say they have a commanding lead:

After three rounds of the quiz, our team was in the lead.

She took the lead with a jump of over six metres.

Another goal from Cooper gave their team a commanding lead.

Particularly in football/soccer, when a player equalizes, they win a point that makes their score equal with the other team:

Japan equalized in the 87^th minute of the match.

There are several nice collocations (words that often go together) for words connected with winning or losing competitions, especially in sports. If a team wins easily, we could say that they have a comfortable win or an emphatic or convincing or decisive victory. If they only win by a small amount, we often talk about a narrow victory:

Pakistan started the contest with a comfortable win over Canada.

He won a decisive victory in the cross-country championship.

His team scored a narrow victory over Motherwell last week.

If a team loses by a small amount, they suffer a narrow defeat, but if they lose by a lot, we may use the emphatic adjective crushing:

The team suffered a narrow defeat on Monday evening.

She reflected on her crushing defeat in the 400-metre sprint.

We often use the verbs finish, and in British English come, to describe how successful a competitor was:

At the end of the season, our team finished fourth in the league.

He came first in the under-12s art competition.

When two people or teams get the same number of points, the competition ends in a tie or a draw. For a race, we often use the term dead heat:

There was a tie for first place.

The game ended in a draw.

The result at the finish line was a dead heat.

Finally, winners usually receive a prize of some sort. This could be a medal (gold for first place, silver for second and bronze for third) or it could be a trophy such as a cup or a shield:

He won a gold medal at the Leeds piano competition.

Their team has won the trophy five times.

The cup was presented by the king.

We are often told that taking part is more important than winning, but whatever your views on this, I hope you find the vocabulary in this post useful!