tournament

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

• noun A series of contests in which a number of contestants compete and the one that prevails through the final round or that finishes with the best record is declared the winner.
• noun A medieval martial sport in which two groups of mounted and armored combatants fought against each other with blunted lances or swords.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A tourney. See tourney and just.
• noun In later times, a contest of skill in which men on horseback riding at full speed strove to carry off on their spears a certain number of rings hung just over their heads.
• noun Encounter; shock of battle.
• noun Any contest of skill in which a number of persons take part: as, a chess tournament.

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

• noun A mock fight, or warlike game, formerly in great favor, in which a number of combatants were engaged, as an exhibition of their address and bravery; hence, figuratively, a real battle.
• noun Any contest of skill in which there are many contestents for championship.

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

• noun historical During the Middle Ages, a series of battles and other contests designed to prepare knights for war.
• noun A series of games; either the same game played many times, or a succession of games related by a single theme; played competitively to determine a single winning team or individual.

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

• noun a series of jousts between knights contesting for a prize
• noun a sporting competition in which contestants play a series of games to decide the winner