bieg

Bieg is a Polish noun with several related meanings. The most common senses are: the act of running or moving on foot; a running race or athletic event (for example, bieg na 100 metrów or a marathon); and a gear or speed setting in a vehicle or machine (bieg w skrzyni biegów). In more abstract usage, bieg can denote the course or progression of events over time, as in w biegu czasu.

In sport and everyday language, bieg refers to both the act of running and the competition itself. It encompasses sprint, middle- and long-distance events, cross-country, and relays. The term appears in phrases such as “uczestniczyć w biegu” and is connected to the verb biec (to run) and the related noun bieganie (the activity of running in general).

In mechanical and transport contexts, bieg means a gear or speed setting in a transmission. It is used in the plural as biegi. Common examples include “pierwszy bieg” (1st gear), “drugi bieg” (2nd gear), and “ostatni bieg” (the top gear). The term also appears in expressions describing engine operation by gear, such as shifting through the gears during driving, and is part of standard automotive vocabulary.

Related terms include przebieg, which denotes actual mileage or the course of events, such as przebieg czasu (the course of time) or przebieg wydarzeń (sequence of events). The word bieg derives from historical uses of running or going and is cognate with similar Slavic terms across the region.