campus

noun

cam·​pus ˈkam-pəs How to pronounce campus (audio)
often attributive
Synonyms of campusnext
1
: the grounds and buildings of a university, college, or school
2
: a university, college, or school viewed as an academic, social, or spiritual entity
3
: grounds that resemble a campus
a hospital campus
a landscaped corporate campus

Examples of campus in a Sentence

Visitors crowded the campus on graduation day. Rallies were held on college campuses across the country. We walked around the campus on our first day.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The 45th event runs Friday, Nov. 15-Sunday, Nov. 17, at Gates Field House on the University of Denver campus as a fundraiser for its host. —John Wenzel, The Denver Post, 14 Nov. 2024 Lincoln continues to focus on expanding its campus operations and launching new programs, while managing costs associated with these expansions. —Quartz Bot, Quartz, 12 Nov. 2024 Good Samaritan’s campus — owned by HCA Healthcare — is currently moving through the rezoning approval process. —Devan Patel, The Mercury News, 8 Nov. 2024 One Friday evening early last year, three grad students burst into a dim pub near the Innsbruck campus holding a laptop. —Quanta Magazine, 6 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for campus 

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin, "flat expanse of land, plain, field" — more at camp entry 1

Note: The English word campus, an Americanism, originally referred to a large open space on the grounds of a college, in accordance with the meaning of its Latin source. The earliest documented use, in 1774, was at Princeton University (then the College of New Jersey). This sense was noted by an English visitor to Princeton in 1833: "In front of the College is a fine campus ornamented by trees" (John Finch, Travels in the United States of America and Canada [London, 1833], p. 282). Shortly before this time campus was used in a description of another American school, South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina): "… the whole [all of the college buildings] disposed so as to form a hollow square, containing about ten acres, which is called the Campus" (Robert Mills, Statistics of South Carolina [Charleston, 1826], p. 701). The use of campus apparently expanded with the growth of U.S. higher education after the Civil War, and the word began to take on an approximation of its current meaning. The etymology researcher Albert Matthews gleaned information from "college histories, college catalogues, and through correspondence" from 359 American institutions and discovered that among 295 "the meaning attached to Campus is that of the grounds in which the buildings stand, or the grounds in general" ("The Term 'Campus' in American Colleges," Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Transactions, vol. 3, March, 1897, p. 433-34). In the twentieth century the word was applied to the buildings as well as the grounds.

First Known Use

1774, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of campus was in 1774

Phrases Containing campus

Dictionary Entries Near campus

Camptosorus

campus

campy

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Campus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/campus. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.

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Kids Definition

campus

noun
cam·​pus ˈkam-pəs How to pronounce campus (audio)
plural campuses
: the grounds of a college or a school
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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