metre

See also: métré, metré, mètre, -metre, and -mètre

English

Alternative forms

• meter

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːtə/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːtəɹ/, [ˈmiːɾɚ]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtə(r)

Etymology 1

From French mètre, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure, rule, length, size, poetic metre”)

Noun

metre (plural metres)

1. The basic unit of length in the International System of Units (SI: Système International d'Unités), equal to the distance travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 seconds. The metre is equal to 39+⁴⁷⁄₁₂₇ (approximately 39.37) imperial inches.
   • 1797, The Monthly magazine and British register, No. 3

     The measures of length above the metre are ten times ... greater than the metre.

   • 1873, The Young Englishwoman, April

     A dress length of 8 metres of the best quality costs 58 francs.

   • 1928, The Observer, April 15

     The 12-metre yachts ... can be sailed efficiently with four paid hands.

Usage notes

• This, rather than meter, is the spelling adopted by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures for use in its publications, and is the official spelling worldwide except in US, where the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology chose to use meter in accordance with the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual.

Synonyms

• m

Derived terms

Derived terms

• cubic metre
• linear metre
• metre gauge
• metre per second

• metric
• metrication
• metrology
• square metre

Translations

unit of length

• Afrikaans: meter (af)
• Albanian: metër (sq) m
• Arabic: مِتْر‎ (ar) m (mitr)

  Egyptian Arabic: متر‎ m (metr)

• Armenian: մետր (hy) (metr)
• Asturian: metru m
• Azerbaijani: metr (az)
• Bashkir: метр (metr)
• Belarusian: метр m (mjetr)
• Bengali: মিটার (miṭar)
• Bulgarian: ме́тър (bg) m (métǎr)
• Burmese: မီတာ (my) (mita)
• Catalan: metre (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 米 (yue) (mai⁵, mai¹), 公尺 (gung¹ cek³)

  Hakka: 米 (mí), 公尺 (kûng-chhak), 米打 (mé-tá)

  Mandarin: 米 (zh) (mǐ), 公尺 (zh) (gōngchǐ)

  Min Nan: 米 (zh-min-nan) (bí), 公尺 (zh-min-nan) (kong-chhioh), bí-ta̍t

• Czech: metr (cs) m
• Danish: meter (da) c
• Dutch: meter (nl) m
• Esperanto: metro (eo)
• Estonian: meeter
• Faroese: metur m
• Finnish: metri (fi)
• French: mètre (fr) m
• Galician: metro (gl) m
• Georgian: მეტრი (meṭri)
• German: Meter (de) m
• Greek: μέτρο (el) n (métro)
• Haitian Creole: mèt
• Hebrew: מֶטֶר‎ (he) m (méter)
• Hindi: मीटर (hi) m (mīṭar)
• Hungarian: méter (hu)
• Icelandic: metri (is)
• Ido: metro (io)
• Indonesian: meter (id)
• Interlingua: metro
• Irish: méadar m
• Italian: metro (it) m
• Japanese: メートル (ja) (mētoru), ㍍ (ja) (mētoru)
• Kannada: ಮೀಟರು (kn) (mīṭaru)
• Kazakh: метр (metr)

• Khmer: ម៉ែត្រ (km) (maet)
• Korean: 미터 (ko) (miteo)
• Kyrgyz: метр (ky) (metr)
• Lao: ແມັດ (lo) (mæt)
• Latvian: (as unit of distance) metrs (lv) m
• Limburgish: maeter (li)
• Lithuanian: metras (lt) m
• Macedonian: метар m (metar)
• Malay: meter
• Malayalam: മീറ്റർ (ml) (mīṟṟar)
• Maori: mita
• Mongolian: метр (mn) (metr)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: meter (no) m

  Nynorsk: meter (no) m

• Ossetian: метр (metr)
• Persian: متر‎ (fa) (metr)
• Polish: metr (pl) m
• Portuguese: metro (pt) m
• Romanian: metru (ro) m
• Russian: метр (ru) m (metr)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: метар m

  Roman: metar (sh) m

• Slovak: meter m
• Slovene: meter (sl) m
• Spanish: metro (es) m
• Swahili: mita (sw)
• Swedish: meter (sv) c
• Tagalog: metro (tl), panukat
• Tajik: метр (tg) (metr)
• Tatar: метр (metr)
• Telugu: మీటరు (mīṭaru)
• Thai: เมตร (th) (méet)
• Turkish: metre (tr)
• Turkmen: metr
• Ukrainian: метр m (metr)
• Urdu: میٹر‎ (mīṭar)
• Uyghur: مېتىر‎ (mëtir)
• Uzbek: metr (uz)
• Vietnamese: mét (vi)
• Walloon: mete (wa) m
• Yiddish: מעטער‎ m (meter)

See also

• Appendix on SI Units

References

“metre” in the Collins English Dictionary, Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers.

Further reading

• SI prefixes
• International Bureau of Weights and Measures

Verb

metre (third-person singular simple present metres, present participle metring, simple past and past participle metred)

1. (Britain, rare) Alternative spelling of meter

Usage notes

The standard spelling of the verb meaning to measure is meter throughout the English-speaking world. The use of the spelling metre for this sense (outside music and poetry) is possibly a misspelling.

Etymology 2

From Old English, from Latin metrum, from Ancient Greek See #Etymology 1

Noun

metre (plural metres) (Britain, Canada)

1. The rhythm or measure in verse and musical composition.

Translations

rhythm or measure in verse and musical composition

• German: Metrum (de) n, Versmaß (de) n (poetry)

• Polish: metrum (pl) n

Verb

metre (third-person singular simple present metres, present participle metring, simple past and past participle metred)

1. (poetry, music) To put into metrical form.

See also

• metronome
• metric
• Wikipedia article: metre (poetry)

Anagrams

• -meter, -treme, Emert, meter, remet, retem

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Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /ˈmə.tɾə/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.tɾə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈme.tɾe/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French mètre.

Noun

metre m (plural metres)

1. metre, meter (unit of measure, 100 cm)

Etymology 2

From Old Occitan metre, from Latin mittere, present active infinitive of mittō. Compare Occitan metre, French mettre, Spanish meter.

Verb

metre (first-person singular present meto, past participle mes)

1. to put, to place
2. to set

Conjugation

Conjugation of metre (second conjugation, irregular past participle)

infinitive			metre
present participle			metent
past participle				masculine		feminine
		singular		mes		mesa
		plural		mesos		meses
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	ell/ella vostè	nosaltres nós	vosaltres vós	ells/elles vostès
	present	meto	mets	met	metem	meteu	meten
	imperfect	metia	meties	metia	metíem	metíeu	metien
	future	metré	metràs	metrà	metrem	metreu	metran
	preterite	metí	meteres	meté	metérem	metéreu	meteren
	conditional	metria	metries	metria	metríem	metríeu	metrien
subjunctive		jo	tu	ell/ella vostè	nosaltres nós	vosaltres vós	ells/elles vostès
	present	meti	metis	meti	metem	meteu	metin
	imperfect	metés	metessis	metés	metéssim	metéssiu	metessin
imperative		—	tu	vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres vós	vostès
		—	met	meti	metem	meteu	metin

Synonyms

• posar

Related terms

• cometre
• missatge
• missió
• prometre

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Old French

Etymology

From Latin mittere, present active infinitive of mittō.

Verb

metre

1. to put, to place

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of metre (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		metre			avoir mis
gerund		en metant			Use the gerund of avoir followed by the past participle
present participle		metant
past participle		mis
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	met	mez	met	metons	metez	metent
	imperfect	metoie, meteie	metoies, meteies	metoit, meteit	metiiens, metiens	metiiez, metiez	metoient, meteient
	preterite	mis	meṣis	mist	meṣimes	meṣistes	misdrent
	future	metrai	metras	metra	metrons	metroiz, metreiz, metrez	metront
	conditional	metroie, metreie	metroies, metreies	metroit, metreit	metriiens, metriens	metriiez, metriez	metroient, metreient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior	Use the preterite tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	mete	metes	mete	metons	metez	metent
	imperfect	meṣisse	meṣisses	meṣist	meṣissons, meṣissiens	meṣissoiz, meṣissez, meṣissiez	meṣissent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	met	—	metons	metez	—

Descendants

• French: mettre
• Norman: maette, mettre

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Turkish

metre

Etymology

Borrowed from French mètre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛtɾɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

metre (definite accusative metreyi, plural metreler)

1. metre, meter (unit of measure, 100 cm)
2. rule, folding rule