meter

Alternative forms

• metre (Commonwealth English for noun senses 4 to 7, rare for other senses)

Etymology

From French mètre, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”)

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmitəɹ/, [ˈmiɾɚ]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːtə/
• Rhymes: -iːtə(r)

Noun

meter (plural meters)

1. (always meter) A device that measures things.
2. (always meter) A parking meter or similar device for collecting payment.

   gas meter (which is also sense 1)

3. (always meter) (dated) One who metes or measures.

   a labouring coal-meter

4. (chiefly US, elsewhere metre) The base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), conceived of as 1/10000000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, and now defined as the distance light will travel in a vacuum in 1/299792458 second.
   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

5. (chiefly US, elsewhere metre) (music) An increment of music; the overall rhythm; particularly, the number of beats in a measure.
6. (chiefly US, elsewhere metre, prosody) The rhythm pattern in a poem.
7. (chiefly US, elsewhere metre) A line above or below a hanging net, to which the net is attached in order to strengthen it.
8. (obsolete) A poem.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Robynson (More's Utopia) to this entry?)

Verb

meter (third-person singular simple present meters, present participle metering, simple past and past participle metered)

1. to measure with a metering device.
2. to imprint a postage mark with a postage meter
3. to regulate the flow of or to deliver in regulated amounts (usually of fluids but sometimes of other things such as anticipation or breath)

Anagrams

• -metre, -treme, Emert, metre, remet, retem

Etymology

From Latin mittere, present active infinitive of mittō.

Verb

meter

1. to put

Noun

meter c (singular definite meteren, plural indefinite meter)

1. a metre, or meter (US) (SI unit of measurement)

References

• “meter” in Den Danske Ordbog

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeːtər/

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

From meten +‎ -er.

Etymology 2

From French mètre.

Etymology 3

Etymology

From Old Portuguese meter, from Latin mittēre (“to send, put”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-, *mith₂- (“to exchange, remove”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈteɾ/

Verb

meter (first-person singular present meto, first-person singular preterite metín, past participle metido)

1. (transitive) to put
2. (transitive) to insert
3. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to meddle, interfere

References

• “meter” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “meter” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “meter” in Santamarina, Antón (coord.): Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.
• “meter” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Etymology

From Latin mittere, present active infinitive of mittō.

Verb

meter

1. to put, place

Verb

mēter

1. first-person singular present active subjunctive of mētor

Noun

meter m (definite singular meteren, indefinite plural meter, definite plural meterne)

1. a metre, or meter (US) (SI unit of length)

Noun

meter m (definite singular meteren, indefinite plural meter, definite plural meterane or metrane)

1. a metre, or meter (US) (SI unit of length)

Alternative forms

• metter (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old Portuguese meter, from Latin mittere, present active infinitive of mittō (“I send, I put”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-, *mith₂- (“to exchange, remove”).

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /mɨˈteɾ/
• Hyphenation: me‧ter

Verb

meter (first-person singular present indicative meto, past participle metido)

1. to put
2. to insert
3. (reflexive) to meddle, interfere

Etymology

From Latin mittere, present active infinitive of mittō (“I send, I put”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-, *mith₂- (“to exchange, remove”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈteɾ/, [meˈt̪eɾ]

Verb

meter (first-person singular present meto, first-person singular preterite metí, past participle metido)

1. to put, to insert
2. (reflexive) to meddle, interfere

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeːtɛr/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

meter c

1. a metre; the SI-unit
2. (music) Rhythm or measure in verse
3. a meter; a device that measures things.

Noun

meter

1. meter