Definition of "gymnasium" []

• Sports A room or building equipped for indoor sports. (noun)
• Sports An academic high school in some central European countries, especially Germany, that prepares students for the university. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "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.”"
• "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."