Champaign Meaning
/ˈʃæmpeɪn/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounOpen countryside, or an area of open countryside.
nounA battlefield.
Sentence Examples
The couple celebrated with a bottle of fine champaign.
The champaign region in France is famous for its wine.
They enjoyed a picnic in the flat champaign country of Illinois.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The flat, open ____ stretched for miles without a single hill or tree.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The city of ____ is home to a very large and famous university city.
Word Origin & History
From Old French champaigne, from Late Latin campānia.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Thenne ſyre Gawayne was ſore greued with theſe wordes / and pulled oute his ſwerd and ſmote of his hede / And therwith torned theyr horſes and rode ouer waters and thurgh woodes tyl they came to theyre buſſhement / where as ſyr Lyonel and ſyr Bedeuer were houyng / The romayns folowed faſt after on horſbak and on foote ouer a chãpayn vnto a wood […]"
— [1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum Sextum”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC, leaves 85, recto – 85, verso; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC, pages 169–170:
"Of all theſe bounds euen from this Line, to this, / With ſhadowie Forreſts, and with Champains rich'd / With plenteous Riuers, and wide-ſkirted Meades / We make thee Lady."
— c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 283, column 2:
"So Segrave in Leiceſterſhire (which Towne I am now bound to remember) is ſited in a Champain, at the edge of the Wolds, and more barren than the villages about it, yet no place likely yeelds a better aire."
— 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 3, page 261:
"Where the Red Lion ſtaring o'er the way, / Invites each paſſing ſtranger that can pay; / Where Calvert’s butt, and Parſon’s black champaign, / Regale the drabs and bloods of Drury-lane; […]"
— a. 1775, Oliver Goldsmith, “A Description of an Author’s Bed-chamber”, in Poems and Plays. […], London: Messrs. Price [et al.], published 1785, →OCLC, page 10:
"[…] unthinking whether some grim fate were poised hawkwise above the level champaign of his life, or some dark storm of sorrow brewing on its calm horizon."
— 1892, Maxwell Gray, The Last Sentence, page 12:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The flat, open ____ stretched for miles without a single hill or tree.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The city of ____ is home to a very large and famous university city.