Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - gymnastic

 I. adjective  Date: 1574 of or relating to ~s ; athletic  • ~ally adverb  II. noun  Date: 1652  1. plural but singular in construction  a. physical exercises designed to develop strength and coordination  b. a competitive sport in which individuals perform optional and prescribed acrobatic feats mostly on special apparatus in order to demonstrate strength, balance, and body control  2. an exercise in intellectual or artistic dexterity my earlier philosophic study had been an intellectual ~ — John Dewey mental ~s  3. a physical feat or contortion the ~s necessary for the killer to have swung from the fire escape — E. D. Radin