Podium

How to spell podium

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce podium

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does podium mean?

1. nounA small raised platform on which a person stands to conduct, speak, or receive an award.

Podium in a sentence

• The conductor stepped onto the podium and raised her baton.

• The gold medallist climbed to the top of the podium during the ceremony.

Where does podium come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Podium came into English through Latin, where podium meant a raised platform, a balcony, or the low wall around an arena. The Romans had borrowed it from the Greek podion, a diminutive meaning 'little foot' or 'base', formed from pous (genitive podos), the ordinary Greek word for 'foot'. The underlying idea is of a small supporting foot or footing that something stands on, which is why an elevated standing platform took the name. English adopted it in the eighteenth century, first in architecture for a continuous base or plinth and later for the speaker's or conductor's stand. The same Greek pous root for 'foot' surfaces in many English words, including tripod, podiatrist, and octopus, which gives a useful clue that the spelling keeps 'pod' rather than 'pud'.

How the word is built

• pod- (from Greek pous/podos: foot)
• -ium (Latin noun suffix for a place or thing)