litre

English

Alternative forms

• liter (US)

Etymology

From French litre, from Medieval Latin litra, from Ancient Greek λίτρα (lítra, “a Sicilian coin, a measure of weight”). Related to Latin libra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈliː.tə/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈli.tɚ/, [ˈli.ɾɚ]
  • Homophone: leader
• Rhymes: -iːtə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: li‧tre

Noun

litre (plural litres) (chiefly British spelling, Canadian spelling, Irish, South African, Australian / NZ spelling)

1. The metric unit of fluid measure, equal to one cubic decimetre. Symbols: l, L, ℓ

   You should be able to fill four cups with one litre of water.

2. (informal) A measure of volume equivalent to a litre.

Usage notes

• The litre is not an SI unit but is accepted for use with SI units. The official SI symbols are the capital or lower-case roman L. The script symbol ℓ, while not officially sanctioned, was sometimes used in non-technical contexts to prevent the lower-case roman l from being confused with 1, the number one.

Translations

unit of fluid measure

• Albanian: litër (sq) m
• Arabic: لِتْر m (litr)

  Egyptian Arabic: لتر m (letr)

• Armenian: լիտր (hy) (litr)
• Asturian: llitru m
• Azerbaijani: litr (az)
• Belarusian: літр m (litr)
• Bengali: লিটার (liṭar)
• Breton: litr
• Bulgarian: ли́тър (bg) m (lítǎr)
• Burmese: လီတာ (my) (lita)
• Catalan: litre (ca) m
• Central Dusun: liter
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 升 (sing¹)

  Mandarin: 升 (zh) (shēng)

• Czech: litr (cs) m
• Danish: liter (da) c
• Dutch: liter (nl)
• Esperanto: litro (eo)
• Estonian: liiter
• Faroese: litur m, litri m
• Finnish: litra (fi)
• French: litre (fr) m
• Galician: litro (gl) m
• Georgian: ლიტრი (liṭri)
• German: Liter (de) m
• Greek: λίτρο (el) n (lítro)
• Hebrew: לִיטר m (líter)
• Hindi: लीटर m (līṭar)
• Hungarian: liter (hu)
• Icelandic: lítri m
• Ido: litro (io)
• Indonesian: liter (id)
• Irish: lítear m
• Italian: litro (it) m
• Japanese: リットル (ja) (rittoru), ㍑ (ja) (rittoru)
• Kazakh: литр (litr)
• Khmer: លីត្រ (liit)
• Korean: 리터 (ko) (riteo)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kurdish:

  Sorani:

• Kyrgyz: литр (ky) (litr)
• Lao: ລິດ (lo) (lit)
• Latvian: litrs m
• Lithuanian: litras m
• Macedonian: литар m (litar)
• Malay: liter
• Maori: rita
• Mongolian: литр (mn) (litr)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: liter m

  Nynorsk: liter m

• Persian: لیتر (fa) (litar)
• Polish: litr (pl) m
• Portuguese: litro (pt) m
• Russian: литр (ru) m (litr)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: литар m

  Latin: litar (sh) m

• Sinhalese: ලීටර් (līṭar)
• Slovak: liter m
• Slovene: liter (sl) m
• Spanish: litro (es) m
• Swahili: lita (sw)
• Swedish: liter (sv) c
• Tagalog: litro
• Tajik: литр (litr)
• Tatar: liter (tt)
• Telugu: లీటరు (līṭaru)
• Thai: ลิตร (th) (lít)
• Tibetan: ཤིང་ཚེ (shing tshe), གཞལ་ཚད་ཞིག (gzhal tshad zhig), ཧྲེང (hreng), བྲེ (bre)
• Turkish: litre (tr)
• Turkmen: litr
• Ukrainian: літр m (litr)
• Urdu: لیٹر m (līṭar)
• Uzbek: litr (uz)
• Vietnamese: lít (vi)
• Welsh: litr
• Yiddish: ליטער m (liter)

Further reading

• litre on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• liter, relit, tiler

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Catalan

Etymology

From French litre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈli.tɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈli.tɾe]

Noun

litre m (plural litres)

1. litre

Further reading

• “litre” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “litre”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “litre” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “litre” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

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French

Etymology

From Medieval Latin litra, from Ancient Greek λίτρα (lítra, “a Sicilian coin, a measure of weight”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /litʁ/

• audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Noun

litre m (plural litres)

1. litre

Related terms

• litron

Descendants

• Arabic: لِتْر (litr)

  Egyptian Arabic: لتر (letr)

• Armenian: լիտր (litr)
• Asturian: llitru
• Belarusian: літр (litr)
• Breton: litr
• Bulgarian: ли́тър (lítǎr)
• Catalan: litre
• Central Dusun: liter
• Czech: litr
• Danish: liter
• Dutch: liter
• English: litre, liter
• Esperanto: litro
• Faroese: litur
• Finnish: litra
• Galician: litro
• German: Liter
• Greek: λίτρο (lítro)
• Hebrew: ליטר (liter)
• Hindi: लीटर (līṭar)
• Hungarian: liter
• Icelandic: lítri
• Irish: lítear
• Italian: litro
• Japanese: リットル (rittoru), ㍑ (rittoru)
• Khmer: លីត្រ (liit)

• Korean: 리터 (riteo)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani:

• Latvian: litrs
• Lithuanian: litras
• Macedonian: литар (litar)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: liter

  Nynorsk: liter

• Persian: لیتر (litr)
• Polish: litr
• Portuguese: litro
• Russian: литр (litr)
• Serbo-Croatian: litar
• Slovak: liter
• Slovene: liter
• Spanish: litro
• Swahili: lita
• Swedish: liter
• Tatar: liter
• Telugu: లీటరు (līṭaru)
• Thai: ลิตร (lít)
• Turkish: litre
• Ukrainian: літр (litr)
• Vietnamese: lít
• Welsh: litr

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• relit

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Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈl̠ʲitʲɾʲə/

Noun

litre f

1. (archaic) Alternative form of litreach: genitive singular of litir
2. (archaic) Alternative form of litreacha: nominative plural of litir

References

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “litre”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

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Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from French litre.

Noun

litre m (plural litres)

1. (Jersey) litre