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:
On July 14, 2028, the Coliseum — USC’s campus-adjacent home stadium — will share the Olympics’ opening ceremony with SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
With the flash of red tail lights flickering outside of the stadium, a sign of Dodgers fans already heading for the exits, Dodgers hitters went down in order in the final half inning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
He retains strong ties to Chicago and is a lifelong fan of the Chicago White Sox baseball team, whose stadium is on the South Side of the city.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
Take the hypothetical example of a city that has hired McKinsey to study where to place a new athletic stadium.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
No one is more surprised than I am that the little girl with the big muscles ended up on a path from foster care to an Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles
The stadium has been undergoing renovation works for more than a decade, with it planned to be among the 11 Spanish stadia used to co-host the 2030 World Cup alongside Portugal and Morocco.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
But all three stadia struggled to attract enough post-tournament regular use.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
Clubs embarking on massive stadia rebuilds are reacting also to changing habits among fans, according to Gutierrez.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
One of the UK's newest sports stadia is Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 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
R.E.M. always had a sense of humor that felt like it got forgotten or overlooked once they were playing stadiums.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
With the construction of homes, stadiums and other buildings throughout the county, bats have adapted to roosting in spaces such as the eaves of homes or in crawl spaces, Curti said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
“Without a comprehensive transit system, we could have empty stadiums and cramped roadways,” Bass said at a meeting of the Metro board last week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
They also gained a reputation as a formidable live act, filling stadiums around the world.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
‘Twice now, I’ve been forced to fight in stadiums - once in Rome, and before that in the Labyrinth. I hate playing games for people’s amusement.’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
