Champaign

//ˈʃæmpeɪn// adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Open countryside, or an area of open countryside. archaic

    "Thenne ſyre Gawayne was ſore greued with theſe wordes / and pulled oute his ſwerd and ſmote of his hede / And therwith torned theyr horſes and rode ouer waters and thurgh woodes tyl they came to theyre buſſhement / where as ſyr Lyonel and ſyr Bedeuer were houyng / The romayns folowed faſt after on horſbak and on foote ouer a chãpayn vnto a wood […]"

  2. 2
    extensive tract of level open land wordnet
  3. 3
    A battlefield. obsolete
Adjective
  1. 1
    Pertaining to open countryside; unforested, flat.

    "They are ſeated alongſt the ſea-coaſt, encompaſſed toward the land with huge and ſteepie mountains, having betweene both, a hundred leagues or there abouts of open and champaine ground."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States.

Example

More examples

"Thenne ſyre Gawayne was ſore greued with theſe wordes / and pulled oute his ſwerd and ſmote of his hede / And therwith torned theyr horſes and rode ouer waters and thurgh woodes tyl they came to theyre buſſhement / where as ſyr Lyonel and ſyr Bedeuer were houyng / The romayns folowed faſt after on horſbak and on foote ouer a chãpayn vnto a wood […]"

Etymology

From Old French champaigne, from Late Latin campānia.

Related phrases

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