gymnasium
1 Americannoun
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gymnasiums,
plural
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gymnasia
plural
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a building or room designed and equipped for indoor sports, exercise, or physical education.
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a place where Greek youths met for exercise and discussion.
noun
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gymnasiums,
plural
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gymnasia
plural
noun
-
a large room or hall equipped with bars, weights, ropes, etc, for games or physical training
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(in various European countries) a secondary school that prepares pupils for university
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gymnasium1
1590–1600; < Latin: a public school for gymnastics < Greek gymnásion gymnastic school (derivative of gymnázein to train in the nude
Origin of gymnasium2
1685–95; < German; special use of gymnasium 1
Explanation
A gymnasium is a place people go to exercise or participate in sports. Your neighborhood gymnasium might be a good place to play basketball, pump iron, or to check out the other gym rats. The more common gym is a shortened form of gymnasium. Most schools have a gymnasium, a room where physical education classes are held and games like dodge ball and volleyball can be played. People also belong to private gymnasiums, where they take yoga classes and run on treadmills and lift weights. In Latin, gymnasium means "school for gymnastics," from the Greek gymnasion, "public place where athletic exercises are practiced."
Vocabulary lists containing gymnasium
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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:
"I felt very ill because I have asthma. I started coughing and I threw up," she told AFP at a gymnasium in the northern Madrid suburb of Alcobendas.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
During the 1950s and 1960s, the team reconstructed a monumental bath gymnasium complex and the largest synagogue in the ancient world.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026
Nike, the shoe company, took over the campus recently re-making the gymnasium, cleaning all the banners hanging from the walls, putting up signs and using the auditorium to make it a shoe store.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
What I heard and witnessed that day in a gymnasium in the middle of coal country has remained with me all these years later.
From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2026
When she came to the gymnasium, a place that was too loud, and said, “You must be quiet. I can’t bring my guests out unless you are quiet.”
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
They might serve as rigorous gymnasia for the political imagination.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2014
As recently as 2006, the state's prisons held twice as many prisoners as they were meant to house, and inmate bunks were stacked in gymnasia and day rooms along with regular cells.
From Reuters ● Oct. 15, 2013
Since dissection was forbidden by their religion, they carefully watched athletes in the gymnasia.
From Time Magazine Archive
A lot of people see the "Y" only as a chain of economical young men's hotels, a place of gymnasia, swimming pools and evening classes.
From Time Magazine Archive
He received his early education at the gymnasia in Mainz and Coburg, and subsequently at Rastenburg in East Prussia.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various
Emergency shelters were set up in schools and gymnasiums in southwestern France for tourists and residents left wondering what they would return to.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
What calls to mind phys ed and school gymnasiums more palpably than dodgeball?
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2024
"I remember that safety inspections were conducted on various gymnasiums after the Qiqihar No. 34 Middle School gymnasium collapsed in July," said a netizen on China's Weibo social media platform.
From Reuters ● Nov. 7, 2023
It includes increased access to water, ice, fans, portable cooling units and shelters, such as gymnasiums or chapels.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2023
“Evacuation centers are being set up throughout Southern California in school gymnasiums, churches, and malls—but there seems to be a staggering number of people who are choosing not to cooperate with these government mandates.”
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
