metre

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

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• meter

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːtə(r)/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From French mètre, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (metron, “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). It 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

• cubic metre
• metrology
• metric
• metre per second
• square metre

See also

• Appendix on SI Units

External links

• SI prefixes
• International Bureau of Weights and Measures

Translations

unit of length

• Afrikaans: meter
• Albanian: metër m
• Arabic: متر (ar) m (mitr)

  Egyptian Arabic: متر m (metr)

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

  Mandarin: 米 (zh) (mǐ)

• Czech: metr (cs) m
• Danish: meter (da) c
• Dutch: meter (nl) m
• Esperanto: metro (eo)
• Estonian: meeter
• Finnish: metri (fi)
• French: mètre (fr) m
• Galician: metro (gl) m
• Georgian: მეტრი (metri)
• German: Meter (de) m
• Greek: μέτρο (el) n (métro)
• Haitian Creole: mèt
• Hebrew: מֶטֶר (he) m
• Hindi: मीटर (mīṭar)
• Hungarian: méter (hu)
• Icelandic: metri (is)
• 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 (metr)
• Lao: ແມັດ (lo) (mæt)
• Latvian: (as unit of distance) metrs (lv) m
• Lithuanian: metras (lt) m
• Lojban: selmitre
• Macedonian: ме́тар m (métar)
• Malay: meter
• Malayalam: മീറ്റർ (ml) (mīṟaṟaar)
• Mongolian: метр (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 m

• Slovak: meter m
• Slovene: meter (sl) m
• Spanish: metro (es) m
• Swedish: meter (sv) c
• Tajik: метр (metr)
• Tatar: метр (metr)
• Telugu: మీటరు (mīṭaru)
• Thai: เมตร (th) (máyt)
• Turkish: metre (tr)
• Turkmen: metr
• Ukrainian: метр m (metr)
• Urdu: میٹر (mīṭar)
• Uzbek: metr
• Vietnamese: mét (vi)
• Walloon: mete (wa) m
• Yiddish: מעטער m (meter)

Verb

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

1. (UK, 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 mis-spelling.

Etymology 2

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

Noun

metre (plural metres) (UK, Canada)

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

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: meter (poetry)

Anagrams

• meter
• remet
• retem

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Catalan

Etymology 1

From French mètre.

Noun

metre m (plural metres)

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

Etymology 2

From Latin mittere, present active infinitive of mittō.

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			mes
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	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells/elles
	present	meti	metis	meti	metem	meteu	metin
	imperfect	metés	metessis	metés	metéssim	metéssiu	metessin
imperative		—	tu	ell/ella	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells/elles
		—	met	meti	metem	meteu	metin

Synonyms

• posar

Related terms

• missió

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Old French

Etymology

Latin mittō.

Verb

metre

1. to put, to place

Descendants

• French: mettre

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Turkish

metre

Etymology

From French mètre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛtɾɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

metre

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