metric system

English

Etymology

Compound of metric +‎ system, from French métrique. See also meter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛtɹɪk ˌsɪstəm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

metric system

1. The system of units developed in France in the 1790s and now used worldwide.
2. The modern version of that system, Système International d'Unités (International System of Units), or SI that is based on the base units of the meter/metre, the kilogram, the second, the ampere, the kelvin, the mole, and the candela.

   see Appendix on SI Units

3. Any variant of that system that was not codified as SI, such as cgs.

Synonyms

• metric (abbreviation)
• (système international): SI

Hyponyms

• (variants): cgs, mks, MTS

Related terms

• metrication
• metric conversion

Translations

system of measurements developed in France

Catalan: sistema mètric m Chinese: Mandarin: 國際公制 / 国际公制 (guójì gōngzhì), (short form) 公制 (zh) (gōngzhì) Dutch: metriek stelsel n Finnish: metrijärjestelmä French: système métrique (fr) m Georgian: მეტრული სისტემა (meṭruli sisṭema) German: metrisches System n Hungarian: méterrendszer (hu) Ido: metrala sistemo Irish: córas méadrach m Korean: 미터법(法) (ko) (miteobeop) Portuguese: sistema métrico Romanian: sistem metric (ro) n Russian: метри́ческая систе́ма f (metríčeskaja sistéma) Spanish: sistema métrico m Thai: ระบบเมตริก (rá-bòp-mee-dtrìk) Turkish: metrik sistem (tr) Welsh: system fedrig f

International System of Units — see International System of Units

See also

• decimalization