arena

Meanings

1. A large enclosed space used for sports events or performances.
2. A field of activity or competition.

Example sentences

• "The singer played to a full arena of fans."

  Level B1, Meaning 1

• "The new arena holds twenty thousand people."

  Level B1, Meaning 1

• "She entered the political arena at twenty-five."

  Level C1, Meaning 2

• "The team practiced at the ice arena."

  Level A2, Meaning 1

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• stadium : A stadium is usually bigger and often open to the sky. An arena is often indoors.
• amphitheater : An amphitheater is an ancient round theater. An arena is the central space inside one.

Word family and forms

Forms: arenas

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "arena".

• a sports arena
• enter the arena
• an ice arena
• a concert arena
• the political arena
• fill the arena

Origin

Arena was borrowed from Latin arena, a form of the older harena, which meant sand. In ancient Rome, the floor where gladiators fought was strewn with sand, and the word came to name the whole space. English had the word by the 1600s.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Arena comes from the Latin word for sand. The first arenas had a floor covered with sand.

Test yourself

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