gymnasium
1 Americannoun
-
gymnasiums,
plural
-
gymnasia
plural
-
a building or room designed and equipped for indoor sports, exercise, or physical education.
-
a place where Greek youths met for exercise and discussion.
noun
-
gymnasiums,
plural
-
gymnasia
plural
noun
-
a large room or hall equipped with bars, weights, ropes, etc, for games or physical training
-
(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
List 8
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
List 9
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
"There is a risk that the fire could reach homes, but we are deploying all available resources to protect them," he said, with a nearby gymnasium opened to accommodate those evacuating their homes.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 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
Protesters have blocked access to an Olympic gymnasium that served as a vote-counting centre ever since.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
The play, an imaginative account of a group of women banding together in a gymnasium during the early days of the women’s rights movement, begins with a performer checking in on us.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2025
Candace and I found our way to the school’s gymnasium, which had obviously been modernized, as it stood in stark contrast to the gothic buildings surrounding it.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
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
Without interrupting his studies at Bowdoin, he supervised both the Yale and Bowdoin gymnasia for three years.
From Time Magazine Archive
There were Italian youth groups from Foggia and Viterbo and Gubbio and Como, a delegation from a Wiesbaden publishing house, some doctors from Canada, and alumni from two gymnasia in Berlin.
From Time Magazine Archive
The course of instruction in the gymnasia was more extensive, and embraced special mathematics, logic, rhetoric, and physics.
From Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. by Xavier Hommaire de Hell
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
They couldn’t carry guns at school events at stadiums, gymnasiums or auditoriums.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 26, 2024
Caucusing begins at 7 p.m. local time in school gymnasiums, community centers and churches as brutal cold and snow in Iowa could affect turnout.
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2024
I had heard about the spacious classrooms, the tall buildings, and the huge, well-equipped gymnasiums.
From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang
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.
