English

An external view of the Colosseum, 2007

Proper noun

Colosseum

1. The largest stadium in the Roman empire, located near the center of Rome.
   • 2002, Tracey Ann Schofield, Rome, page 39,

     The Colosseum (known at the time as the Flavian Amphitheater) in Rome was the empire's greatest amphitheater. A marvel of Roman engineering, the Colosseum could hold up to 70,000 spectators.

   • 2007, Luciano Mangiafico, Italy's Most Wanted™: The Top 10 Book of Roman Ruins, Wonderful Wines, and Renaissance Rarities, page 36,

     The Colosseum’s elliptical shape is 617 feet long, 512 feet across, and 159 feet high.

   • 2009, Holly Hughes, Frommer's 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up, unnumbered page,

     Perhaps no classical Roman ruin evokes the excesses of the late Empire like the Colosseum.

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• coliseum
• colossæum (archaic)

Noun

colosseum ‎(plural colosseums)

1. Alternative spelling of coliseum

Latin

Adjective

colossēum

1. nominative neuter singular of colossēus
2. accusative masculine singular of colossēus
3. accusative neuter singular of colossēus
4. vocative neuter singular of colossēus

References

• colosseum in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• colosseum in Samuel Ball Platner (1929), Thomas Ashby, editor, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press