OLYM'PIAD, n. [L. Olympias; Gr. from Olympus, a mountain of Macedonia.]

A period of four years reckoned from one celebration of the Olympic games to another, and constituting an important epoch in history and chronology. The first Olympiad commenced 775 years before the birth of Christ, and 22 years before the foundation of Rome. The computation by Olympiads ceased at the three hundred and sixty fourth Olympiad, in the year 440 of the christian era.