Dictionary

coliseum en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• [kʰɔləˈsɪjəm] (British, Southern, Standard)
• /-ʊm/
• [kʰɑɫəˈsi.əm] (US)
• /kɒləˈsiːəm/
• [k(ʰ)ɒləˈsiːəm] (Canada, Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From Medieval Latin coliseum, from Latin Colosseum, from neuter of colosseus (“gigantic”), from Ancient Greek κολοσσιαῖος (kolossiaîos), from κολοσσός (kolossós, “giant statue”). See also: w:Colosseum § Name on Wikipedia.

Meanings

1. A large theatre, cinema, or stadium.
   • These complex structures, whose towers seemed to touch the heavens, with ornate windows, vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses, were the Wembley Stadia, the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and the LA Memorial Colisea of their day – soaring temples to the worship of God designed to accommodate thousands, as awesome to behold then as they are today. 2014, Harry Bucknall, Like a Tramp, Like A Pilgrim: On Foot, Across Europe to Rome, Continuum, →ISBN:
   • Old-fashioned republicans like Cato in Rome deplore intricate hairdos, fringes on the toga, Lucullan banquets, specialized artisanry, the scale of entertainment in the Colisea and Circuses, toplofty military triumphs, sexual excess, serial marriage, and overindulgence of every kind. 2000, William R[omeyn] Everdell, “Conclusion”, in The End of Kings: A History of Republics and Republicans, 2nd edition, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 304:
   • the London Coliseum
   • Has he not found this wide region profusely sprinkled with public works—highways, bridges, acqueducts,^([sic]) arches, palaces, Colisea,—massive, Roman-built? 1859 November, “Christianity a Strong System”, in The New Englander, volume XVII, number LXVIII, New Haven, Conn.: William L. Kingsley, […], page 856:
   • The nibbèd feather plumes its flights toward thee, / Thou mistress of mad poets and of night, / Cynthia, whom science weakly holds to be / The milky way’s coagulated light, / Or scooped from verdant Colisea of the Mite. 1868, P. F. Roe, “[Puzzles.] No. 4. Why is a Feather like Green Cheese?”, in Poems: Characteristic, Itinerary, and Miscellaneous, London: John Camden Hotten, […], part III (Minor Poems, Miscellaneous, Fugitive, and Occasional), page 184:
2. A large, often circular building, for indoor sporting events, exhibitions, concerts, etc.; arena.
   • The state deplores the consumer approach in sport—and builds the colisea which encourage it. 1956, Soviet Survey, pages 54–55:

Forms

Deriveds

coliseum ivy