Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Sports A room or building equipped for indoor sports.
- n. Sports An academic high school in some central European countries, especially Germany, that prepares students for the university.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Greek antiquity, a public place for instruction in and the practice of athletic exercises: a feature of all Greek communities. It was at first merely an open space of ground, but was later elaborated into an extensive establishment, with porticos, courts, chambers, baths, etc., lavishly decorated with works of art; and facilities for the instruction of the mind, as libraries and lecture-rooms, were often combined with it. The gymnasium was distinctively a Greek institution, and never found high favor in Rome, though introduced by some admirers of the Greeks under the late republic and the empire.
- n. Hence In modern use, a place where or a building in which athletic exercises are taught and performed.
- n. A school or seminary for the higher branches of literature and science; a school preparatory to the universities, especially in Germany; a classical as opposed to a technical school.
Wiktionary
- n. A large room or building for indoor sports.
- n. A type of secondary school in some European countries which typically prepares students for university.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A place or building where athletic exercises are performed; a school for gymnastics.
- n. A school for the higher branches of literature and science; a preparatory school for the university; -- used esp. of German schools of this kind.
WordNet 3.0
- n. athletic facility equipped for sports or physical training
- n. a school for students intermediate between elementary school and college; usually grades 9 to 12
Etymologies
- From Latin gymnasium, from Ancient Greek γυμνάσιον (gumnasion, "exercise, school"), from γυμνός ("naked"), because Greek athletes trained naked. (Wiktionary)
- Latin, school, from Greek gumnasion, from gumnazein, to exercise naked, from gumnos, naked. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word gymnasium comes from the Greek word gymnos, which means naked.”
“In fact, the word gymnasium comes from the Greek word gymnos, which translates as “naked.””
Simon & Schuster: God is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu …
“In many quarters there was a clamour for "practical" studies, and the old classical course was decried as useless, or merely ornamental; its very foundation, the theory of mental or formal discipline, well expressed in the term gymnasium for classical schools in Germany, has been vigorously assailed, but not disproved.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery
“Having been made so aware of your edges, you’re more inclined to guard them; it’s still significant that the word gymnasium comes from the Greek for naked.”
“The Prom in the Forks High gymnasium is going to be AWESOME!!!”
“I have seen many men strip, in gymnasium and training quarters, men of good blood and upbringing, but I have never seen one who stripped to better advantage than this young sot of two-and-twenty, this young god doomed to rack and ruin in four or five short years, and to pass hence without posterity to receive the splendid heritage it was his to bequeath.”
“I have seen many men strip, in gymnasium and training quarters, men of good blood and upbringing, but I have never seen one who stripped to better advantage than this young sot of two and twenty, this young god doomed to rack and ruin in four or five short years, and to pass hence without posterity to receive the splendid heritage it was his to bequeath.”
“Athletic participants did not wear clothes, either in training or in the actual games-hence the modern word gymnasium, which originally was not only a place to train but also a place of nudity.”
“Mr. Obama toured a classroom that was then unheated and un-air-conditioned it has since been updated and shot hoops in the gymnasium, which is not big enough for a regulation basketball court.”
The Wall Street Journal: South Carolina Town Tests Candidates
“And then there is the gymnasium, which is un-air-conditioned, and thus the problems can't be blamed on "trapped moisture" in a building that doesn't "breathe.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gymnasium’.
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EN - fine scholarly language
exhort, accretion, twenty-nine, atrophy, additive, brilliantly, interreligious, empiricism, pathologic, limitless, half-century, vigilant and 488 more...
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SPOR - Olympic glossary
hurdle, tempo, consortium, caption, mutual understanding, jury, radio, javelin, extra time, boxing, Lander, European and 521 more...
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Naked
Words relating to getting naked, being naked, the commonly naked, nakedness (partial or complete), and similar.
denude, strip, stripper, harlot, Cyprian, fancy woman, lady of pleasure, hooker, divest, unfrock, unclothe, disrobe and 115 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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gymno-, gymn-
naked
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vinyl's Words
deliverator, finna, metric fuckton, fag, hyphy, ginormous, sacrilicious, fantabulous, macaca, n-word, pterodactyl, genious and 560 more...
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faux amis
Words which mean something different in another language.
gift, rat, handy, puff, mist, bald, bad, tripper, qualm, slip, fast, art and 57 more...
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Nice Sounding Words
Just a list of words that sound relatively nice. :)
Popular, Elementary, Concoction, Pepsin, Lily, way, gymnasium, harrumph, refenestrate, defenestrate, melevolent, abseil and 9 more...
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Room At The Inn
Words to do with hotels, inns, resorts, guesthouses ... broad in scope :-)
no-show, guesthouse, booking, room, single, double, triple, restaurant, concierge, laundry service, turn-down, porter and 81 more...
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Unnamed
zwieback, prophylactic, sidereal, demesne, manorial, dressage, arboretum, colporteur, intaglio, incise, pithecanthropus, incunabulum and 71 more...
Tweets
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sionnach Weirdnet has it right, if you're a German speaker. Jan 9, 2008