mile

Meanings

Plural: mile, miles

Noun

• a unit of length equal to 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet; exactly 1609.344 meters
• a unit of length used in navigation; exactly 1,852 meters; historically based on the distance spanned by one minute of arc in latitude
• a large distance
  • "he missed by a mile"
• a former British unit of length once used in navigation; equivalent to 6,000 feet (1828.8 meters)
• a former British unit of length equivalent to 6,080 feet (1,853.184 meters); 800 feet longer than a statute mile
• an ancient Roman unit of length equivalent to 1620 yards
• a Swedish unit of length equivalent to 10 km
• a footrace extending one mile
  • "he holds the record in the mile"
• 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.
• 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.
• Any of many customary units of length derived from the Roman mile (mille passus) of 8 stades or 5,000 Roman feet.
• The Scandinavian mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 10 kilometers defined in 1889.
• Any of many customary units of length from other measurement systems of roughly similar values, as the Chinese mile or Arabic mile.
• An airline mile in a frequent flyer program.
• Any similarly large distance.
• A race of 1 mile's length; a race of around 1 mile's length (usually 1500 or 1600 meters)
• One mile per hour, as a measure of speed.

Synonyms

Admiralty mile, air mile, geographical mile, international mile, international nautical mile, knot, land mile, mi, mil, naut mi, nautical mile, Roman mile, sea mile, stat mi, statute mile, Swedish mile

Related Words

mileage, milepost, miles per gallon, milestone, mpg