runner-up

1. 1.

   the competitor who finishes second

   Synonymssecond best

   Broaderrival

Questions about runner-up

What does runner-up mean?

runner-up means "the competitor who finishes second".

How many syllables are in runner-up?

runner-up has 3 syllables: run-ne-r-up. The stress falls on "run". In IPA it is /ˈɹʌnɚˌʌp/.

What is another word for runner-up?

Close synonyms include second best. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is runner-up a common word?

runner-up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.