mile

Etymology

From Middle English myle, mile, from Old English mīl, from Proto-Germanic *mīlijō (“mile”), 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”)). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Miele (“mile”), Dutch mijl (“mile”), German Meile (“mile”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /maɪ̯l/, [maɪ̯ɫ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪl

Noun

mile (plural miles)

1. 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.
2. 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.

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     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.

   • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

     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.

3. Any of many customary units of length derived from the Roman mile (mille passus) of 8 stades or 5,000 Roman feet.
4. Any of many customary units of length from other measurement systems of roughly similar values, as the Chinese (里) or Arabic mile (al-mīl).
5. (informal) Any similarly large distance.

   The shot missed by a mile.

6. (slang) 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.

7. (slang) One mile per hour, as a measure of speed.

   five miles over the speed limit

See also

References

Anagrams

• Elmi, Emil, Imel, Lemi, Liem, Meli, lime

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /miːlə/, [ˈmiːlə]
• Rhymes: -ajl

Noun

mile c (singular definite milen, plural indefinite miler)

1. dune
2. charcoal stack
3. atomic pile

Etymology

From English mile.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mil/, /majl/

Noun

mile m (plural miles)

1. mile

Further reading

• “mile” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• lime, limé
• miel

Etymology 1

From Old English mīl (“millet”) and Latin milium (“millet”).

Etymology 2

From Old English mīl (“mile”).

Alternative forms

• mil

Etymology

From Latin mīlle.

Numeral

mile

1. one thousand

Noun

mile

1. nominative plural of mila
2. accusative plural of mila
3. vocative plural of mila

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmile]

Noun

mile f pl

1. plural of milă