campus

American  

[kam-puhs] / ˈkæm pəs /

noun

• campuses
  plural

1. the grounds, often including the buildings, of a college, university, or school.

2. a college or university.

   The large influx of older students radically changed many campuses throughout the country.

3. a division of a university that has its own grounds, buildings, and faculty but is administratively joined to the rest of the university.

4. the world of higher education.

   Foundation grants have had a marked effect on the character of the American campus.

5. a large, usually suburban, landscaped business or industrial site.

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campus British  

/ ˈkæmpəs /

noun

1. the grounds and buildings of a university

2. the outside area of a college, university, etc

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• intercampus
  adjective
• noncampus
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• campuses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of campus

1765–75, < Latin: flat place, field, plain

Explanation

The land and various buildings that make up a college are its campus. If you live on campus, you'll be close to your classes. When you hear the word campus, you generally think of a college or university, which include libraries and labs and classrooms and dormitories, all of which make up a campus. Other institutions, including hospitals, high schools, and some companies' office buildings, also have campuses. The word campus is Latin for "a field" or "an expanse surrounded."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

campus campuses

Cook’s fondness for his alma mater Auburn University, where he earned a degree in industrial engineering, periodically brings him back to campus for special events or football games.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026

To help developer SoftBank’s SB Energy raise debt to build the campus, Nvidia agreed to backstop a portion of the completed value of the site, up to $105 billion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

The end of the summer practices for San Clemente involves jogging from campus 1.8 miles to the San Clemente Pier.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

Kyle Spencer, an author and journalist who for years has written about the rise of a conservative youth movement, first met Owens on a college campus in Colorado in 2018.

From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026

The crowd pushes me out and away from the campus, and down the row of idling yellow buses.

From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day

Some campuses — including the new programs at USC and University of San Francisco — are teaching students to build the systems.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

Students are going back to the most surveilled campuses in American history.

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026

Fundamentally, college campuses are communities, and the members of the community want students to succeed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Child-care nonprofits are taking advantage of declining enrollment at TK-12 schools to turn vacant classrooms and even closed campuses into child-care hubs, expanding scarce infant and toddler slots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

Ludus had hundreds of large forests scattered all over its surface, in the vast sections of empty land that stood between the thousands of school campuses.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Related Words

• dorm
• square