kilo-

See also: Appendix:Variations of "kilo"

English

Etymology

From French, kilo- irregularly derived from Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi, “one thousand”). The etymologically "correct" form would be chili- or chilo-, resulting in forms such as chiliasme (“chiliasm”) or chilopode (“centipede”); but the French, when creating the prefix, had to avoid a possible (standard) pronunciation of chi as /ʃi/, too close to the vulgar verb chier.

Prefix

SI prefix

k	Previous:	hecto-
	Next:	mega-

kilo-

1. In the International System of Units and other metric systems of units, multiplying the unit to which it is attached by 1,000. Symbol: k
2. (computing) Multiplying the unit to which it is attached by 2¹⁰ (1024)

Usage notes

• The usage of kilo as a 1024x multiplier in computing is considered obsolete in some groups, but others continue to use it this way.[1] See kibi-.

Synonyms

• chilia-

Antonyms

• milli-

Related terms

English terms prefixed with kilo-

Translations

prefix

• Albanian: kilo-
• Basque: kilo- (eu)
• Belarusian: кіла- (kila-)
• Bulgarian: кило- (kilo-)
• Catalan: quilo- (ca), kilo- (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 千- (yue) (cin¹)

  Hakka: 千- (chhiên-)

  Hokkien: 千- (zh-min-nan) (chhian-)

  Mandarin: 千- (zh) (qiān-)

• Czech: kilo- (cs)
• Danish: kilo- (da)
• Dutch: kilo- (nl)
• Esperanto: kilo-
• Estonian: kilo- (et)
• Finnish: kilo- (fi)
• French: kilo- (fr)
• Galician: quilo- (gl)
• German: kilo- (de)
• Greek: χιλιό- (el) (chilió-), χιλιο- (el) (chilio-)
• Hindi: सहस्र- (sahasra-)
• Hungarian: kilo- (hu)
• Icelandic: kíló-
• Ido: kilo-
• Indonesian: kilo-
• Irish: cilea-
• Italian: chilo- (it), kilo- (it)
• Japanese: キロ- (kiro-)
• Korean: 킬로 (killo-)
• Latvian: kilo-
• Lithuanian: kilo-
• Malagasy: kilao-
• Malay: kilo- (ms)
• Marathi: सहस्र- (sahasra-)
• Nepali: सहस्र- (sahasra-)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kilo- (no)

  Nynorsk: kilo-

• Polish: kilo- (pl)
• Portuguese: quilo- (pt), kilo-
• Romanian: kilo- (ro)
• Russian: кило- (ru) (kilo-)
• Serbo-Croatian: kilo-
• Slovak: kilo-
• Slovene: kilo-
• Spanish: kilo- (es), quilo-
• Swedish: kilo- (sv)
• Tagalog: libo-
• Thai: กิโล- (gì-loo)
• Turkish: kilo-
• Ukrainian: кіло- (kilo-)

Further reading

• “kilo-”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Ilok, Loki

Albanian

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Albanian terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-”, in FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[2] (in Albanian), 1980

Basque

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Basque terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• "kilogramo" in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy], euskaltzaindia.eus

Catalan

Alternative forms

• quilo-

Etymology

Borrowed from French kilo-, from Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi, “thousand”).

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo- (SI prefix expressing 10³ of the base unit)

Usage notes

• The letter k is not normally used in Catalan. Instead, Catalan orthography calls for using the qu digraph to represent the /k/ sound before an e or an i. Therefor, when the metric system was introduced into Catalan, the prefix kilo- was originally spelled quilo-. With the advent of k as a standard international abbreviation, usage of kilo- has become not only acceptable, but also more common than the traditional spelling. However, traditionalists still insist upon the use of quilo-.

Further reading

• “kilo-” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “kilo-”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “kilo-” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

Czech

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Czech terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• kilo- in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
• kilo- in Slovník afixů užívaných v češtině, 2017

Danish

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Danish terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

From French kilo-.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Dutch terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilogram” in Van Dale Onlinewoordenboek, Van Dale Lexicografie, 2007.

Esperanto

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Esperanto terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• kilogramo in Fundamento de Esperanto by L. L. Zamenhof, 1905

Estonian

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Estonian terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009

Finnish

Etymology

Internationalism, from French kilo-, ultimately from Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi, “one thousand”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkilo-/, [ˈk̟ilo̞-]

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

• kilogramma
• kilojoule
• kilokalori
• kilometri
• kilopondi
• kilotavu
• kilotonni
• kilowatti

Further reading

• “kilo-”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-01

Anagrams

• Koli, loki, olki

French

Etymology

See English kilo-.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

French terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

German terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-” in Duden online
• “kilo-” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkilo]
• Hyphenation: ki‧lo

Prefix

kilo-

1. (noun prefix) kilo-

   ‎kilo- + ‎méter (“meter”) → ‎kilométer (“kilometer”)

Derived terms

Hungarian nouns prefixed with kilo-

See also

• Appendix:Hungarian prefixes

Further reading

• kilométer in Hungarian–English dictionary at SZTAKI

Ido

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Ido terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• kilogram-o in Ido-English Dictionary by L. H. Dyer, 1924

Italian

Prefix

kilo-

1. (sciences) kilo-

   Synonym: (in more general usage) chilo-

Further reading

• kilo- in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication

Latvian

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Latvian terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• kilo- at tezaurs.lv

Lithuanian

Noun

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Lithuanian terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilometras”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2024

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Norwegian Bokmål terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Norwegian Nynorsk terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilogram” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈki.lɔ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ilɔ
• Syllabification: ki‧lo

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Polish terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• kilo- in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Prefix

kilo-

1. Alternative spelling of quilo-

Romanian

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Romanian terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• kilo- in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Serbo-Croatian

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Serbo-Croatian terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-” in Hrvatski jezični portal

Slovak

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Slovak terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024

Slovene

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kíːlɔ/

Prefix

kȋlo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Slovene terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran

Spanish

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Spanish terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilo-”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Swedish terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• kilo- in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• olik

Turkish

Prefix

kilo-

1. kilo-

Derived terms

Turkish terms prefixed with kilo-

Further reading

• “kilogram”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu