in the running
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Competing or being considered for something
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
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Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: participating in a race
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She smiled again, which Mark again returned, even though he was not in the running.
MIDDLESBROUGH manager Lennie Lawrence last night warned that victory against Oxford United at Ayresome Park tonight is vital if they are to stay in the running for an automatic promotion spot.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “in the running” mean?
Competing or being considered for something Literally: participating in a race
Is “in the running” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.