Champion

How to spell champion

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce champion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does champion mean?

1. nounA person or team that has won first place in a competition.
2. verbTo support, defend, or actively promote a person, cause, or idea.

Champion in a sentence

• noun

  The reigning champion defended her title in straight sets.

• verb

  The senator continued to champion stronger consumer protections.

• noun

  Their club produced a national champion for the third year running.

• verb

  She was hired to champion the new recycling scheme across the city.

Where does champion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Champion comes from the Late Latin campio, meaning a fighter or combatant, which was itself rooted in campus, the Latin word for a flat open field and, by extension, a field of battle or a parade ground. The earliest champions were literally the men who stepped onto that field to fight a contest, often on behalf of someone else in a judicial duel or trial by combat. English took the word in the 1200s through Old French champion, where it kept the sense of one who fights for a cause or a person. Over the centuries the meaning broadened from a hired fighter to the victor of any contest, and then to anyone who publicly defends or promotes a cause. The same campus root survives in the modern academic word 'campus' and in 'camp', which helps explain the unexpected 'p' tucked between the 'm' and the 'i'.

How the word is built

• champ- (from Latin campio, a fighter)
• -ion (noun suffix)