Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Gymnastic exercises designed to develop muscular tone and promote physical well-being.
  • noun The practice or art of such exercises.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The science, art, or practice of healthful exercise of the body and limbs, to promote strength, gracefulness, and general fitness; light gymnastics.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun plural Gymnastic exercises, especially morning exercises, done to keep one's body healthy.
  • noun singular A system of such exercises.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the practice of calisthenic exercises
  • noun light exercises designed to promote general fitness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek kalli-, beautiful (from kallos, beauty) + sthenos, strength; see segh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κάλλος (kallos, "beauty") + σθένος (sthenos, "strength").

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Examples

  • As freshmen we hadn’t actually attended them, but the main feature of the night was called calisthenics, and it was some cheesy aerobics routine.

    Copy Cat Jacque Nimble 2010

  • He was so clumsy he couldn't even do the side-straddle-hop in calisthenics.

    Heroes or Villains? 2010

  • We come now to what I may call the calisthenics of the business, exercises which may be roughly compared to the technical exercises necessary in learning to play a musical instrument.

    Mental Efficiency And Other Hints to Men and Women Arnold Bennett 1899

  • I heard Horton ask how many participants have his P90X program, and a good many hands went up among the hundred or so runners stretching and limbering up, doing what we used to call calisthenics before fitness became a multibillion-dollar industry

    Politics Daily 2010

  • I do calisthenics, which is basically using your own body weight, like you do in yoga, to strengthen your core.

    Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Views' 2010

  • I do calisthenics, which is basically using your own body weight, like you do in yoga, to strengthen your core.

    Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Views' 2010

  • I do calisthenics, which is basically using your own body weight, like you do in yoga, to strengthen your core.

    Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Views' 2010

  • They were not allowed to learn dancing; they had no outdoor games at all, not even croquet -- nothing whatever to exhilarate them and develop them physically except an hour's "deportment," the very mildest kind of calisthenics, in the big class-room once a fortnight, and the daily making of their little beds.

    The Beth Book Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius Sarah Grand

  • Body weight drills such as calisthenics and plyometrics keep your nervous system sharp.

    EzineArticles 2010

  • I am a big proponent on implementing training methods such as calisthenics, plyometrics, and various other body resisted movements.

    EzineArticles 2010

Comments

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  • According to Wikipedia, it comes from the Greek words kalos, 'beautiful' and sthénos, 'strength'.

    December 26, 2007