stadium
Americannoun
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stadiums,
plural
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stadia
plural
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a sports arena, usually oval or horseshoe-shaped, with tiers of seats for spectators.
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an ancient Greek course for foot races, typically semicircular, with tiers of seats for spectators.
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an ancient Greek and Roman unit of length, the Athenian unit being equal to about 607 feet (185 meters).
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a stage in a process or in the life of an organism.
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Entomology. stage.
noun
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a sports arena with tiered seats for spectators
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(in ancient Greece) a course for races, usually located between two hills providing natural slopes for tiers of seats
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an ancient Greek measure of length equivalent to about 607 feet or 184 metres
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(in many arthropods) the interval between two consecutive moultings
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obsolete a particular period or stage in the development of a disease
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of stadium
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin < Greek stádion unit of distance, racecourse
Explanation
A stadium is a large outdoor venue for sports or concerts. If you were a Roman emperor, you might've watched a chariot race at a stadium, but these days you're more likely to go to a stadium to see a football game or your favorite band. The word stadium is the Latin form of the Greek stadion, which was a length of about 600 human feet. Running tracks at the earliest Greek Olympics were approximately one stadion in length, and Roman tracks of a similar size were surrounded by tiered seating — which led to the English meaning of stadium, a track or field in the middle of tiered seats.
Vocabulary lists containing stadium
Set, Hut! Football Vocabulary
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The Smashing Lexicon of Tennis
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Ancient Rome - Introductory
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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:
Sydney Marathon confirmed runners would receive the medal depicting the incorrect city's stadium, noting: "It's a beautiful medal, and now a little more unique."
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
But high school football games had a magnetic pull, and spectators consistently sold out the stadium, he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
He confirmed to the BBC that he was not involved in designing the other face of the medal engraved with the wrong stadium.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
Even after Long Beach City College acquired the venue from the city for $1 in 1987, it was the home stadium for Poly High School’s powerhouse program.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
The cars drive the losers and winners out of the stadium while we applaud their collective greatness, and then we’re all sent back into school before final bell.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
Playing all of this World Cup's matches at existing stadia helps with such ambitions.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Clubs embarking on massive stadia rebuilds are reacting also to changing habits among fans, according to Gutierrez.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
During the football debate, someone in the audience argued that too many clubs moved to fancy new stadia, away from their traditional homes.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
Also included in the draft budget is an inflationary uplift of some £52.4m for the redevelopment of Casement Park as well as an uplift for sub-regional football stadia, also in line with inflation.
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2026
From the difference in the apparent position of the North Star in Egypt and Greece, Aristotle even quoted an estimate that the distance around the earth was 400,000 stadia.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
But the Dodgers are the greatest show in baseball, playing before stadiums packed with fans willing to shell out top dollar to see a roster that includes international superstars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
"We have seen a substantial increase in the costs of putting stadiums together, but there still seems to be an appetite for it."
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
The couple spent their courtship sharing fun Covid-era activities, like stealing toilet paper, enjoying empty cinemas and stadiums, and taking selfies in front of dumpster fires, all to the tune of Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.”
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
Supporters packed the streets in front of stadiums shouting down the idea.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The ones who build the school its auditoriums and stadiums.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
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.
