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If you've ever watched the Tour de France on television, you've seen the peloton, the brightly colored pack of riders making up the central group. You may have also gained some inadvertent insight into the word itself, which as you may have guessed is French in origin. In French, "peloton" literally means "ball," but it is most often used with the meaning "group." It's frequently used in the bicycling context, just as in English, but it can also refer to a group in a marathon or other sporting event. French peloton can also mean "squad" or "platoon," and since we’ve told you that you probably won’t be too surprised to learn that it is also the source of our word platoon.
Examples of peloton in a Sentence
Frederick Dreier, Outside Online, 28 Aug. 2024
Inside the final 40 kilometers (25 miles), Evenepoel broke away from a peloton that included top rivals like Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands.
—Rosanne Roobeek, CNN, 4 Aug. 2024
We were headed into Marin, a popular destination for San Francisco cyclists: on weekends, the roads are inundated with riders in sleek-looking pelotons, who roll up to small-town main drags and, rocking lightly in clipless bike shoes, click-clack into bakeries for halftime refreshments.
—Anna Wiener, The New Yorker, 16 Sep. 2024
Philipsen, of Belgium, emerged last year as the peloton’s top sprinter, winning four stages with the help of teammate Mathieu van der Poel, also known as the Flying Dutchman.
—Alicia Victoria Lozano, NBC News, 28 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for peloton 
Dictionary Entries Near peloton
Cite this Entry
“Peloton.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peloton. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.
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