gym
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gym
First recorded in 1870–75; by shortening
Explanation
A gym is a building or room that's meant for playing indoor sports or exercising. You might go to the gym to pump iron, or you might go to the gym to see who else is pumping iron. The word gym is a shortened form of gymnasium, originally a Latin word meaning "school for gymnastics," from the Greek gymnasion, "public place where exercises are practiced." The preferred way to dress at a gym these days is in shorts or sweatpants, but back in Ancient Greece, men commonly exercised naked — hence the root gymnazein, "to train naked."
Vocabulary lists containing gym
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Having a look through the fencing while heading to the nearby gym are Liffy MacIntosh and her six-year-old son Harvey.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
She’ll go for a 30-minute walk outside wearing a weighted vest, UV protectant facial mask and sun hat, then spend another 30 in her home gym.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Bandy found the move immediately challenging — from trying to figure out how to buy a gym locker to discovering her preferred grocery store, every task felt like extra work.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
Entering the gym, Ohashi giggled that so many of the judges from a decade ago were still there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
She turned and ran off the blacktop, to a quiet spot behind the jungle gym.
From "I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980" by Lauren Tarshis
The funding will be used to accelerate Neura's activities, ranging from the deployment of robots to the rollout of "gyms" for clients to train bots, and the development of the company's physical AI systems.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
There are now several Aescapes around L.A., including at Equinox gyms.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
Some gyms now stay open all hours, night and day.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
From AAU games in Ohio to college gyms up and down the Atlantic Coast Conference to the NBA, Luke Kennard has always been met with the same warning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2026
My very ability to work tirelessly hour after hour is a product of decades of better-than-average medical care, a high-protein diet, and workouts in gyms that charge $400 or $500 a year.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
