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Sports & Fitness vocabulary · Gym & Equipment

Gym

Meaning in sports & fitness, with examples

/dʒɪm/nounCore term

In sports & fitness, gym means: A building or room with equipment for physical exercise, such as weights, machines and treadmills; also called a fitness centre or health club.

In Turkish: spor salonu, salon, fitness merkezi

How it is used

Short for gymnasium. People go to the gym, join a gym and pay for a gym membership. In American schools, gym also means PE lessons (gym class). In British English, fitness centre and leisure centre are also common.

Example sentences

  1. I go to the gym before work because it's quieter in the morning.

  2. The gym has a free-weights area, a cardio zone and two studios.

Common collocations

  • go to the gym
  • join a gym
  • gym membership
  • gym instructor
  • home gym
  • hit the gymAn informal way of saying to go to the gym to exercise, often used to show energy or determination.
  • free weightsWeights that are not attached to a machine, such as dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells, so the user has to control and balance them.
  • locker roomA room at a gym, pool or stadium where people change clothes, shower and keep their things in lockers.
  • personal trainerA fitness professional who designs exercise programmes for individual clients and supervises their sessions one to one.
  • treadmillAn exercise machine with a moving belt on which you walk or run on the spot, with controls for speed and incline.

More terms: Gym & Equipment

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