Campus

//ˈkæmpəs// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The grounds or property of a school, college, university, business, church, or hospital, often understood to include buildings and other structures.

    "The campus is sixty hectares in size."

  2. 2
    a field on which the buildings of a university are situated wordnet
  3. 3
    An institution of higher education and its ambiance.

    "During the late 1960s, many an American campus was in a state of turmoil."

Verb
  1. 1
    To confine (a student) to campus as a punishment.

    "They hold sessions regularly and “campus” women for staying out late—and they do their best campussing at those times when they are sleepiest and meanest from being out until three and four themselves the night before."

  2. 2
    To use a campus board, or to climb without feet as one would on a campus board.

    "It is climbed or "campused" with only your arms and hands."

Example

More examples

"My school is getting ready for the campus music festival."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin campus (“field”). Doublet of camp and champ. First used in its current sense in reference to Princeton University in the 1770s.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.