metre

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

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

metre

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• meter

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːtə/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːtəɹ/, [ˈmiːɾɚ]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: me‧tre
• Rhymes: -iːtə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From French mètre, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure, rule, length, size, poetic metre”). Doublet of meter, metron, and mether.

Noun

metre (plural metres)

2. 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.

   Holonyms: kilometre < megametre < gigametre < terametre < petametre

   Meronyms: picometre < nanometre < micrometre < millimetre < centimetre < decimetre

   • 1797, The Monthly magazine and British register, number 3:

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

   • 1873 April, The Young Englishwoman:

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

   • 1928 April 15, The Observer:

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

Usage notes

• The spelling metre is used by both the International Bureau of Weights and Measures and the International Organization for Standardization in their English-language texts, and is used in all English-speaking countries other than the US. The spelling used in the US is meter—for instance, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology and the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual use meter.

Synonyms

• m

Derived terms

• 1000 metre
• 1000-metre
• 1,000-metre
• attometre
• cubic metre
• cumec
• exametre
• femtometre
• gigametre
• kilogram-metre
• linear metre
• megametre
• metre-gauge
• metre gauge
• metre-kilogramme-second
• metre-kilogram-second
• metre per second
• metre stick
• metre-tonne-second
• metre-ton-second
• metric
• metrication
• metrology
• micrometre
• myriametre
• nanometre
• newton metre
• newton-metre
• polymetre
• quettametre
• ronnametre
• square metre
• terametre
• yoctometre
• yottametre
• zeptometre
• zettametre

(Metric scale)

• centimetre
• decametre
• decimetre
• hectometre
• kilometre
• millimetre

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: mita
• → Burmese: မီတာ (mita)
• → Chinese: 米突 (mǐtū, mǐtú)
• → Japanese: メーター (mētā)
• → Korean: 미터 (miteo) (South Korea), 메터 (meteo) (North Korea, China)
• → Maori: mita
• → Malay: meter
• → Sinhalese: මීටර් (mīṭar)
• → Swahili: mita
• → Yoruba: mítà

Translations

unit of length

Adyghe: метр (metr) Afrikaans: meter (af) Albanian: metër (sq) m Amharic: ሜትር (metr) Arabic: مِتْر (ar) m (mitr) Egyptian Arabic: متر m (metr) Hijazi Arabic: متر m (mitir) Armenian: մետր (hy) (metr) Asturian: metru m Azerbaijani: metr (az) Bashkir: метр (metr) Belarusian: метр m (mjetr), мэ́тар m (métar) (Taraškievica) Bengali: মিটার (bn) (miṭar) Bulgarian: ме́тър (bg) m (métǎr) Burmese: မီတာ (my) (mita) Catalan: metre (ca) m Chinese: Cantonese: 米 (yue) (mai5, mai1), 公尺 (gung1 cek3) Dungan: ми (mi), метр (mi͡ətr) Hakka: 米 (mí), 公尺 (kûng-chhak), 米打 (mé-tá) Hokkien: 米 (zh-min-nan) (bí), 公尺 (zh-min-nan) (kong-chhioh), 米達 / 米达 (bí-ta̍t) (dated) Mandarin: 米 (zh) (mǐ), 公尺 (zh) (gōngchǐ), 米突 (zh) (mǐtū, mǐtú) (dated) 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) Gujarati: મીટર (mīṭar) Haitian Creole: mèt Hawaiian: mīka Hebrew: מֶטֶר (he) m (méter) Hindi: मीटर (hi) m (mīṭar) Hungarian: méter (hu) Icelandic: metri (is) m Ido: metro (io) Indonesian: meter (id) Ingrian: metra Interlingua: metro Irish: méadar m Italian: metro (it) m Japanese: メートル (ja) (mētoru), ㍍ (ja) (mētoru) Jarai: mĕt Kannada: ಮೀಟರು (kn) (mīṭaru) Kazakh: метр (metr) Khmer: ម៉ែត្រ (km) (maet) Korean: 미터 (ko) (miteo), 메터 (ko) (meteo) (North Korea) Kyrgyz: метр (ky) (metr) Lao: ແມັດ (lo) (mæt) Latin: metrum (la) Latvian: metrs (lv) m Limburgish: maeter (li) Lithuanian: metras (lt) m Lü: ᦶᦙᧆ (maed) Macedonian: метар m (metar) Malay: meter (ms) Malayalam: മീറ്റർ (ml) (mīṟṟaṟ) Maori: mita Mòcheno: meter m Mongolian: Cyrillic: 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: ме̏тар m Roman: mȅtar (sh) m Shan: မႅတ် (mět) Sinhalese: මීටර් (mīṭar) 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) Tigrinya: ሜትሮ (metro) Turkish: metre (tr) Turkmen: metr Ukrainian: метр m (metr) Urdu: میٹر (mīṭar) Uyghur: مېتىر (mëtir) Uzbek: metr (uz) Vietnamese: mét (vi), thước (vi), thước tây (vi) Walloon: mete (wa) m Yakut: миэтэрэ (mietere) Yiddish: מעטער m (meter) Yoruba: mítà

See also

• Appendix on SI Units

References

“metre”, in Collins English Dictionary.

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. (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 a misspelling.

Etymology 2

From Old English, from Latin metrum, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure, rule, length, size, poetic metre”).

Noun

metre (countable and uncountable, plural metres)

1. (UK, Canada) The rhythm or measure in language (especially verse) and musical composition.

   Hyponym: musical time

Translations

rhythm or measure in verse and musical composition

Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can Esperanto: metro (eo) German: Metrum (de) n, Versmaß (de) n (poetry) Hindi: छंद (hi) m (chand) Hungarian: versmérték (hu), metrum (hu), ütem (hu) Malayalam: വൃത്തം (ml) (vr̥ttaṁ) 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

Catalan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French mètre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈmɛ.tɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈme.tɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈme.tɾe]

Noun

metre m (plural metres)

1. metre/meter (unit of measure, 100 cm)
2. (poetry, music) metre/meter (the rhythm of a song or poem)

Derived terms

• metratge

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Catalan metre, from Latin mittere. Compare Occitan metre, French mettre, Spanish meter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈmɛ.tɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈmə.tɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈme.tɾe]

Verb

metre (first-person singular present meto, first-person singular preterite metí, past participle mes); root stress: (Central) /ɛ/; (Valencia) /e/; (Balearic) /ə/

1. (transitive, archaic) to put, to place

   Synonym: posar

2. (transitive, archaic) to set

Conjugation

    Conjugation of metre (second conjugation, irregular)

infinitive			metre
gerund			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
	affirmative	—	met	meti	metem	meteu	metin
	negative (no)	—	no metis	no meti	no metem	no meteu	no metin

Related terms

• cometre
• entremetre
• malmetre
• mesa
• missa
• missatge
• missió
• prometre

Further reading

• “metre”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “metre”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “metre” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “metre” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Franco-Provençal

Etymology

Inherited from Latin mittere.

Verb

metre (ORB, broad)

1. to put

References

• mettre in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• metre in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu