mile

English

/maɪ̯l/

noun
Definitions
  • 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 Kingdom of 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 Chinese (里) or Arabic mile (al-mīl).
  • (travel) An airline mile in a frequent flier program.
  • (informal) Any similarly large distance.
  • (slang) A race of 1 mile's length; a race of around 1 mile's length (usually 1500 or 1600 meters)
  • (slang) One mile per hour, as a measure of speed.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English myle inherited from Old English mīl (millet, mile) derived from *mīliju derived from Latin mīlia (thousand).

Origin

Latin

mīlia

Gloss

thousand

Concept
Semantic Field

Quantity

Ontological Category

Number

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms