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Webster 1913 Edition


Mile

Mile

(mīl)
,
Noun.
[AS.
mīl
, fr. L.
millia
,
milia
; pl. of
mille
a thousand, i. e.,
milia passuum
a thousand paces. Cf.
Mill
the tenth of a cent,
Million
.]
A certain measure of distance, being equivalent in England and the United States to 320 poles or rods, or 5,280 feet.
☞ The distance called a mile varies greatly in different countries. Its length in yards is, in Norway, 12,182; in Brunswick, 11,816; in Sweden, 11,660; in Hungary, 9,139; in Switzerland, 8,548; in Austria, 8,297; in Prussia, 8,238; in Poland, 8,100; in Italy, 2,025; in England and the United States, 1,760; in Spain, 1,552; in the Netherlands, 1,094.
Geographical mile
or
Nautical mile
,
one sixtieth of a degree of a great circle of the earth, or 6080.27 feet.
Mile run
.
Same as
Train mile
. See under
Train
.
Roman mile
,
a thousand paces, equal to 1,614 yards English measure.
Statute mile
,
a mile conforming to statute, that is, in England and the United States, a mile of 5,280 feet, as distinguished from any other mile.

Webster 1828 Edition


Mile

MILE

,
Noun.
[L. mille passus, a thousand paces; passus being dropped in common usage.] A measure of length or distance, containing eight furlongs, 320 rods, poles or perches, 1760 yards, 5280 feet, or 80 chains. The Roman mile was a thousand paces, equal to 1600 yards English measure.

Definition 2024


Mile

Mile

See also: mile, míle, milè, mìle, miłe, and mĩ lệ

Marshallese

Proper noun

Mile

  1. Mili atoll.

References

mile

mile

See also: Mile, míle, milè, mìle, miłe, and mĩ lệ

English

Noun

mile (plural miles)

  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.
  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.
    • Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 3/19/2, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
      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.
    • 2013 June 8, The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:
      From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. []   But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.
  3. Any of many customary units of length derived from the Roman mile (mille passus) of 8 stades or 5,000 Roman feet.
  4. Any of many customary units of length from other measurement systems of roughly similar values, as the Chinese () or Arabic mile (al-mīl).
  5. (informal) Any similarly large distance.
    The shot missed by a mile.
  6. (slang) A race of 1 mile's length; a race of around 1 mile's length (usually 1500 or 1600 meters)
    The runners competed in the mile.
  7. (slang) One mile per hour, as a measure of speed.
    five miles over the speed limit

Derived terms

Translations

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    Anagrams


    Danish

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /miːlə/, [ˈmiːlə]

    Noun

    mile c (singular definite milen, plural indefinite miler)

    1. dune
    2. charcoal stack
    3. atomic pile

    Inflection


    French

    Etymology

    From English mile.

    Noun

    mile m (plural miles)

    1. mile anglo-saxon

    Related terms

    Anagrams


    Old French

    Alternative forms

    Etymology

    From Latin mīlle.

    Numeral

    mile

    1. one thousand

    Descendants


    Polish

    Noun

    mile

    1. nominative plural of mila
    2. accusative plural of mila
    3. vocative plural of mila

    Romanian

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): [ˈmile]

    Noun

    mile f pl

    1. plural of milă