stadium

[ stey-dee-uh m ]

/ ˈsteɪ di əm /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stadium ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural sta·di·ums, sta·di·a [stey-dee-uh] /ˈsteɪ di ə/.

a sports arena, usually oval or horseshoe-shaped, with tiers of seats for spectators.

an ancient Greek course for foot races, typically semicircular, with tiers of seats for spectators.

an ancient Greek and Roman unit of length, the Athenian unit being equal to about 607 feet (185 meters).

a stage in a process or in the life of an organism.

Entomology. stage(def 11b).

Nearby words

stadia, stadia rod, stadial, stadimeter, stadiometer, stadium, stadium jacket, stadle, stadtholder, staff, staff association

Origin of stadium

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin < Greek stádion unit of distance, racecourse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for stadium

A winning team may pack the stadium, but you need that packed stadium to get top recruits and sustain victories.
How The University of Wisconsin Badgers Are Bucking the Big Ten Ticket Flop|Brian Weidy|October 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Getting students to games clearly has ramifications beyond the walls of the stadium.
How The University of Wisconsin Badgers Are Bucking the Big Ten Ticket Flop|Brian Weidy|October 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Under Francis, the Church wants to bring people back into the stadium, as it were.
Pope Francis Wins a Battle to Welcome Gays in the Church|Barbie Latza Nadeau|October 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Daniel Craig, in his finest Bond dinner jacket, called at the Palace and invited her to parachute into the stadium with him.
Imagining Prince Charles as King Makes All of Britain Wish They Could Leave Like Scotland|Clive Irving|September 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST

I turned around and saw the US Navy Blue Angels about to buzz the stadium.
San Fran Kisses Its 70,000-Person Toilet Goodbye|Jon Rochmis|August 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It was a quadrangular pyramid of baked brick, a stadium in height, and each of the sides a stadium in length.
The Geography of Strabo, Volume III (of 3)|Strabo
The Marathon was to start at three in the afternoon at a point twenty-six miles away from the Stadium.
Bert Wilson, Marathon Winner|J. W. Duffield
We shall no longer confuse Upper and Lower Egypt, or a peristyle with a stadium.
The Ship Dwellers|Albert Bigelow Paine
Unfortunately, we do not know the length of the stadium he used.
History of Astronomy|George Forbes
At length a herald was ordered to proclaim in the midst of the stadium that "Polycarp confesses he is a Christian."
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 03|Various

British Dictionary definitions for stadium

stadium

/ (ˈsteɪdɪəm) /

noun plural -diums or -dia (-dɪə)

a sports arena with tiered seats for spectators

(in ancient Greece) a course for races, usually located between two hills providing natural slopes for tiers of seats

an ancient Greek measure of length equivalent to about 607 feet or 184 metres

(in many arthropods) the interval between two consecutive moultings

obsolete a particular period or stage in the development of a disease

Word Origin for stadium

C16: via Latin from Greek stadion, changed from spadion a racecourse, from spān to pull; also influenced by Greek stadios steady

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

Word Origin and History for stadium

stadium

late 14c., "a foot race, an ancient measure of length," from Latin stadium "a measure of length, a race course" (commonly one-eighth of a Roman mile; translated in early English Bibles by furlong), from Greek stadion "a measure of length, a running track," especially the track at Olympia, which was one stadium in length.

The Greek word might literally mean "fixed standard of length" (from stadios "firm, fixed," from PIE root *sta- "to stand"), or it may be from spadion, from span "to draw up, pull," with form influenced by stadios.

The meaning "running track," recorded in English from c.1600, was extended to mean in modern-day context "large, open oval structure with tiers of seats for viewing sporting events" (1834).

stadium

noun, plural sta·di·ums, sta·di·a [stey-dee-uh] /ˈsteɪ di ə/.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of stadium

Examples from the Web for stadium

British Dictionary definitions for stadium

stadium

noun plural -diums or -dia (-dɪə)

Word Origin for stadium

Word Origin and History for stadium

stadium