podium
/ˈpəʊdɪəm
/noun (plural podiums or podia /ˈpəʊdɪə/)
1A small platform on which a person may stand to be seen by an audience, as when making a speech or conducting an orchestra: he was at the podium facing an expectant conference crowd...
- A seemingly proud Hilary Modeste stood at the podium to deliver his speech for the evening.
- One needs only to imagine the American professor standing at the podium before a Muslim audience.
- Change does not come from above: it's not the result of speeches from podiums - it's the outcome of the way people conduct their lives.
Synonyms
platform, stage, dais, rostrum, stand, soapbox;
Indian mandapam
1.1North American A lectern: I took the score out of my briefcase and put it on the podium...
- There was a desk, some chairs, a podium, and a screen on the back wall.
- Stepping aside to allow the president through, Cindy Collins took her seat in a folding chair behind the podium.
- The hostess nodded and motioned for them to follow her, moving from the podium, past two tables of diners and to a small two person table.
1.2(In some sporting events) a structure consisting of three adjacent platforms of different heights, on which the competitors finishing in first, second, and third places receive their awards: it was more than I could imagine to be up on the podium and singing the national anthem...
- Visitors have the chance to create some Olympic memories of their own with a photograph on the winner's podium.
- After three year's of dominance by Michael Schumacher and Ferrari there is competition for positions on both the grid and the podium once again.
- It's wonderful that we have such a great pairs team in the US that will hopefully make the podium at Salt Lake.
1.3A continuous projecting base or pedestal under a building: a six columned portico raised on a podium...
- With the exception of the lowest level - where the concrete forms a stepped podium for the building - it is clad with metal and glass.
- In the foreground there were screens of columns standing on a projecting podium and supporting an entablature.
- We ended up building on a podium on the west side.
1.4A projecting lower structure around the base of a tower block.The parallel inventions of lifts and mechanical air-conditioning in the building industry allowed the vertical stacking of patient accommodation atop podiums....
- Some tall buildings sit on a podium or a base of two or three storeys containing shops or offices if they are in a central business/retail area.
1.5A raised platform surrounding the arena in an ancient amphitheatre.The keep, begun about 1074-6, incorporates much Roman masonry and was raised on the concrete podium of the Roman temple....
- The donjon was located on the podium of the former Roman temple of Claudius, also the site of a Late Saxon villa regalis.
verb [no object] chiefly US
(Of a competitor in a sporting event) finish first, second, or third, so as to appear on a podium to receive an award: older riders who expected to podium may find themselves racing against other riders who are years younger...
- This is the team in which every rider has podiumed in an NRC event.
- She podiumed at the recently stacked Des Moines Triathlon World Cup.
- Do you hope to podium, or will that take a while?
Origin
Mid 18th century: via Latin from Greek podion, diminutive of pous, pod- 'foot'.