mile
Forms
- Plural
- miles
Definitions
1.The international mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 1.609344 kilometers established by treaty among Anglophone nations in 1959, divided into 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards.
- You need to go about three mile down the road.
- Turn left in 1.2 miles.
2.Any of several customary units of length derived from the 1593 English statute mile of 8 furlongs, equivalent to 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards of various precise values.
- Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.
3.Any of many customary units of length derived from the Roman mile (mille passus) of 8 stades or 5,000 Roman feet.
4.The Scandinavian mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 10 kilometers defined in 1889.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #790
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English myle, mile
From Old English mīl
From Proto-West Germanic *mīliju, a borrowing of Latin mīlia, mīllia, plural of mīle, mīlle (“mile”) (literally ‘thousand’ but used as a short form of mīlle passūs (“a thousand paces”)).