What does "bodybuilding" mean?

A sport in which the aesthetics of muscular development is the basis for competition.

What is a synonym for "bodybuilding"?

Common synonyms include: anaerobic exercise, muscle building, musclebuilding, physical culture.

Pronounced //ˈbɒ.diˌbɪl.dɪŋ//.

//ˈbɒ.diˌbɪl.dɪŋ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A sport in which the aesthetics of muscular development is the basis for competition. uncountable
"Like those activities, bodybuilding is an obsession, a living (for a few), and a way of life for the people involved in it—a subculture, in a word, with its own values, aesthetics and vocabulary."
2
exercise that builds muscles through tension wordnet
3
Work done to construct or repair the body of an automobile. dated, uncountable
"In my day, if you filled out your shirt, people assumed you played football or wrestled. The term bodybuilding had more to do with cars than lifting weights."

"Bodybuilding is his hobby so he has a very firm tight body with lots of muscle definition."

From body + building.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.