mile
nounUK, US /maɪ̯l/ · /maɪ.əl/
Etymology From Middle English myle, mile, from Old English mīl, from Proto-West Germanic *mīliju, a borrowing of Latin mīlia, mīllia, plural of mīle, mīlle (“mile”) (literally ‘thousand’ but used as a short form of mīlle passūs (“a thousand paces”)).
9 senses
- 1The international mile: a unit of length precisely equal…
- 2Any of several customary units of length derived from…
- 3Any of many customary units of length derived from the…
- 4The Scandinavian mile: a unit of length precisely equal…
- 5Any of many customary units of length from other…
- 6An airline mile in a frequent flyer program.
- 7Any similarly large distance.
- 8A race of 1 mile's length; a race of around 1 mile's…
- 9One mile per hour, as a measure of speed.
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.
- Turn left in 1.2 miles.
- You need to go about three mile down the road.
1 more example
- 3.6 km is about 2 miles.
Any of several customary units of length derived from the 1593 English statute mile of 8 furlongs, equivalent to 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards of various precise values.
- Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.1892, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate: A Novel, page 16:
- Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
2 more examples
- From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.[…] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 17 Oct 2021, page 52:
- Total activity levels in the lowest quartile were equivalent to walking for 49 minutes at roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) per hour daily. Total activity levels in the second-, third- and fourth-highest quartiles were equivalent to 78, 105 and 160 minutes, respectively.2024 November 15, Kristen Rogers, “Want to live an extra 5 to 10 years? Adopt this habit, study suggests”, in CNN, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2025:
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 mile or Arabic mile.
Informal Any similarly large distance.
- The shot missed by a mile.
- My legs felt stiff and leaden from miles of walking.
Athletics, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A race of 1 mile's length; a race of around 1 mile's length (usually 1500 or 1600 meters)
- The runners competed in the mile.
Colloquial One mile per hour, as a measure of speed.
- five miles over the speed limit
- Derived terms
113 terms
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