'Free Solo', the documentary film of Alex Honnold's historic solo of Freerider on El Capitan, has added to its growing list of international film awards by clean-sweeping all seven trophies across the seven Creative Arts categories in which it was nominated at the 71st Emmy Awards in the United States. In the same week, the term 'free solo' earned a place in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, in both verb and noun form.

Free Solo has racked up 30 major film awards out of 47 nominations since its premiere in Telluride last year, including a Best Documentary Feature Oscar (UKC news), a Best Documentary Film BAFTA (UKC news) and an Eddie Award from the American Cinema Editors Guild Awards. Given the film's success and its international reach to a non-climbing audience, it's no surprise that Merriam-Webster gathered enough usage evidence of the term being used to warrant a place in their dictionary.

'Free solo' now has a spot in the dictionary, no strings attached. https://t.co/Qac8yLsDQq pic.twitter.com/gZWOvBico9

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 17, 2019

1. free solo noun

Definition of free solo

rock climbing

: a climb in which a climber uses no artificial aids for support and has no rope or other safety equipment for protection in case of a fall

2. free solo verb

Definition of free solo

rock climbing

: to perform a free solo climb of a rock face, climbing route, etc. : to climb without the use of artificial aids or safety equipment

The entry also includes free soloist(s) and free soloing/free-soloing.

'Free-climb' is also listed as an entry, which - combined with 'free solo' - might help non-climbers to understand that a 'free-climber' is not a 'free soloist'!

Listed below are the categories won by the Free Solo team at the 71st Emmy Awards:

Outstanding Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program - 2019

Jimmy Chin, Director of Photography

Director of Photography, Clair Popkin

Cinematography by, Mikey Schaefer

Winner

Free Solo

National Geographic

National Geographic Documentary Films, Little Monster Films, Itinerant Media, Parkes+MacDonald/Image Nation

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Nonfiction Program (Single Or Multi-Camera) - 2019

Sound Supervisor, Deborah Wallach

Sound Effects Editor, Filipe Messeder

Music Editor, Jim Schultz

Foley Editor, Roland Vajs

Foley Artist, Nuno Bento

Winner

Free Solo

National Geographic

National Geographic Documentary Films, Little Monster Films, Itinerant Media, Parkes+MacDonald/Image Nation

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera) - 2019

Re-Recording Mixer, Tom Fleischman, CAS

Re-Recording Mixer, Ric Schnupp

Scoring Mixer, Tyson Lozensky

Production Mixer, Jim Hurst

Winner

Free Solo

National Geographic

Outstanding Directing For A Documentary/Nonfiction Program - 2019

Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Directed by Jimmy Chin

Winner

Free Solo

National Geographic

Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media Within An Unscripted Program - 2019

Directed by/Produced by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Directed by/Produced by Jimmy Chin

Produced by Evan Hayes

National Geographic,

Framestore,

Winner

Free Solo

National Geographic

National Geographic Documentary Films

Outstanding Music Composition For A Documentary Series Or Special (Original Dramatic Score) - 2019

Music by Marco Beltrami

Music by Brandon Roberts

Winner

Free Solo

National Geographic

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Nonfiction Program - 2019

Bob Eisenhardt, ACE, Editor

Winner

Free Solo

National Geographic