stadium

Etymology

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 (stádion, “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 (stádios, “firm, fixed”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-, whence also stand and Latin stare). Doublet of stade, stadion, and estadio.

noun

1. A venue where sporting events are held.
   In a convulsion that has caught many in Brazil and beyond by surprise, waves of protesters denounced their leaders for dedicating so many resources to cultivating Brazil’s global image by building stadiums for international events, when basic services like education and health care remain woefully inadequate. June 18, 2013, Simon Romero, “Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders”, in New York Times
2. An Ancient Greek racecourse, especially, the Olympic course for foot races.
3. (historical) Synonym of stadion, a Greek unit of length equivalent to about 185 m.
4. A kind of telemeter for measuring the distance of an object of known dimensions, by observing the angle it subtends.
5. (surveying) a graduated rod used to measure the distance of the place where it stands from an instrument having a telescope, by observing the number of the graduations of the rod that are seen between certain parallel wires (stadia wires) in the field of view of the telescope.
6. (biology) A life stage of an organism.