Other forms: stadiums, stadia
A stadium is the huge open building where thousands watch big games. A packed stadium, stadium tour, build a new stadium.
Its acoustics are the reason a crowd sounds as it does — the bowl reflects sound back down. Whether public money should build one is a permanent argument, and the economic case for it is weak. Note that the Greek stadion was a running track of a fixed length, which is where the word comes from.
1nounstadiumA large open building where crowds watch sport.
“The stadium was packed with fans singing and waving flags.”
stadium is a building.
Also accepted in games: arena
Latin stadium comes from Greek stadion, a running track of a set length. The building took the name of the race.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂-
Ancient Greek
στάδιον — a measure of length, a running track
Latin
stadium — a measure of length, a race course
English, today
stadium
Built from
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 Ancient Greek στάδιον (“a measure of length, a running track”), especially the track at Olympia, which was one stadium in length. The Greek word may literally mean "fixed standard of length" (from στάδιος (“firm, fixed”), from Proto-Indo-European steh₂-, whence also stand and Latin stare). a doublet of stade and stadion and estadio. Displaced native Old English spyrd.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA