Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

palestra

American  
[puh-les-truh] / pəˈlɛs trə /
Or palaestra

noun

Greek Antiquity.
  • palestras,
    plural
  • palestrae
    plural
  1. a public place for training or exercise in wrestling or athletics.


palestra British  
/ pəˈlɛstrə, -ˈliː- /

noun

  1. the usual US spelling of palaestra

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of palestra

1375–1425; late Middle English palestre < Latin palaestra a wrestling school, place of exercise < Greek palaístra, equivalent to palais-, variant stem of palaíein to wrestle + -tra feminine noun suffix of place


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:

By gymnastics the Greeks meant the physical training in the palestra, an open stretch of ground on the outskirts of the city.

From Early European History by Hutton Webster

The statue represents an athlete rubbing his arm with a flesh scraper to remove the oil and sand of the palestra, or exercising ground.

From Early European History by Hutton Webster

The apartment at the entrance of the baths, or in the palestra, where one stripped; a dressing room.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster

Afterward I challenged him to the palestra; and he wrestled and closed with me several times alone; I fancied that I might succeed in this way.

From The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece by Francis W. (Francis Whiting) Halsey

For many things there be, which we must conceit and apprehend, as though we had had to do with an antagonist at the palestra.

From Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training