stadium

[stey-dee-uh m]

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).

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. 2018

Related Words for stadium

field, gymnasium, amphitheater, garden, diamond, coliseum, bowl, ring, pit, strand, gridiron, stade

Examples from the Web for stadium

Contemporary Examples of 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
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
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
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
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

Historical Examples of stadium

In October, 1920, the Stadium in this park was formally opened.
McGill and its Story, 1821-1921
Cyrus Macmillan
"I shall never boast about the stadium at Cambridge again," she said.
Rafael in Italy
Etta Blaisdell McDonald
He wished to inspect them in the stadium, and they were now marching thither.
A Thorny Path [Per Aspera], Complete
Georg Ebers
He never went near the stadium again as long as he lived, I understand.
At Good Old Siwash
George Fitch
All of this was duly announced to the stadium and the excitement was intense.
At Good Old Siwash
George Fitch

British Dictionary definitions for stadium

stadium

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

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).