Gara
NOUN [feminine]
Meaning and English translation 🔖
1. Competition, Contest
🇬🇧 A competitive comparison between two or more people who try to outdo each other to achieve a record or win a prize.
🇮🇹 Confronto competitivo fra due o più persone che cercano di superarsi a vicenda per conseguire un primato o ottenere un premio.
2. Race (especially in sports)
🇬🇧 Competition between individuals and teams practicing the same sport.
🇮🇹 Competizione fra individui e squadre praticanti una stessa attività sportiva.
| Masculine ♂️ | Feminine ♀️ | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | - | la - una gara |
| Plural | - | le - delle gare |
Example sentences 💬
La prossima settimana partecipo a una gara di canto.
I'm participating in a singing competition next week.
Il Giro d’Italia è una delle più importanti gare ciclistiche al mondo.
Giro d'Italia is one of the most important cycling races in the world.
Imparare una lingua non è una gara con altri. Siamo tutti diversi!
Learning a language is not a competition with others. We are all different!
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Idioms with gara 🇮🇹
Fare a gara
→ To compete, to vie with each other
I bambini facevano a gara per attirare l'attenzione della maestra.
The children were competing to get the teacher's attention.
Essere in gara
→ To be competing
Sono in gara per il posto di direttore.
I'm in the running for the director's position.
Rimanere in gara
→ To be in the running
Dopo il primo turno, solo tre candidati sono rimasti in gara.
After the first round, only three candidates were still in the running.
Fuori gara
→ Out of the competition
L'atleta è stato squalificato ed è fuori gara.
The athlete was disqualified and is out of the competition.
Gara d'appalto
→ Call for bids, tender
L'azienda ha vinto la gara d'appalto per la costruzione del nuovo stadio.
The company won the tender for the construction of the new stadium.
Gara di solidarietà
→ Outpouring of solidarity
Dopo il terremoto, c'è stata una gara di solidarietà per aiutare i sopravvissuti.
After the earthquake, there was an outpouring of solidarity to help the survivors.
Where does the word gara come from? 🔎
Gara has an interesting history that takes us back in time, through various European languages.
It probably derives from Old French garer or guarer, which meant "to pay attention" or "to observe". This French word, in turn, comes from an even older Germanic language, Frankish, where warōn meant "to watch over" or "to observe".
It's curious to see how the meaning has changed over time: from "observe carefully" it shifted to "keep an eye on an opponent to overcome them", until it reached the sense of "competition" that we know today.
We find the same root in other languages: for example, in Old German there was bi-warōn, which today has become bewahren and means "to preserve" or "to keep". And it doesn't end there: even our verb guardare (to look) and the English war come from the same word family!
