distance
Forms
- Plural
- distances
- present (v1)
- distance
- past (v2)
- distanced
- past participle (v3)
- distanced
- present participle
- distancing
- 3rd person singular
- distances
Definitions
1.An amount of space between points (often geographical points), usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.
- Keep distance from trucks and other vehicles when driving.
2.Chiefly with a modifying word: a measure between two points or quantities; a difference, a variance.
- The distance between the lowest and next gear on my bicycle is annoying.
3.An interval or length of time between events.
- But the new sovereign's mind was haunted by an apprehension not to be mentioned, even at this distance of time, without shame and indignation.
4.Chiefly in from a distance: a place which is far away or remote; specifically (especially painting), a more remote part of a landscape or view as contrasted with the foreground.
- As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance, hallooing, "Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!"
1.To cause (a place, a thing, etc.) to seem distant, or (figurative) unfamiliar.
2.To keep (someone) emotionally or socially apart from another person or people.
3.Often followed by from: to set (someone or something) at a distance (noun sense 1.1) from someone or something else.
- It [an insight] distances those who share it, from those who share it not.
4.To leave behind (someone or something moving in the same direction; specifically, other competitors in a race) some distance away; to outpace, to outstrip.
- He heard only here and there the ecstatic burst of a mocking-bird's wonderful roulades. Then the horse, with muscles as strong as steel, distanced the sound.
- Our fleeter steeds have distanced our attendants; / They lag behind us with a slower pace; / We will await them under the green pendants / Of the great willows in this shady place.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1485
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English distance, distaunce, destance (“disagreement, dispute; discrimination; armed conflict; hostility; trouble; space between two points; time interval”), from Anglo-Norman distance, distaunce, destance, Middle French distance, and Old French destance, destaunce, distaunce (“debate; difference, distinction; discord, quarrel; dispute; space between two points; time interval”) (modern French distance), and directly from their etymon Latin distantia (“difference, diversity; distance, remoteness; space between two points”) (whence also Late Latin distantia (“disagreement; discrepancy; gap, opening; time interval”)), from distāns (“being distant; standing apart”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Distāns is the present active participle of distō (“to be distant; to stand apart; to differ”), from dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, asunder; in two’) + stō (“to stand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)).