Alternative forms
- metre (British English for noun senses 2 and 3, rare for other senses)
Etymology
Senses 1.1, 2, and 3 were borrowed from French mètre and Latin metrum; from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure, rule, length, size, poetic metre”).
Sense 1.2 is a noun derived from mete, from Old English metan (“to measure, mark off”), possibly influencing the other meanings.
Noun
meter (plural meters)
- A device that measures things.
- A parking meter or similar device for collecting payment.
- gas meter
- (dated) One who metes or measures.
- a laboring coal-meter
- A parking meter or similar device for collecting payment.
- (American spelling) The base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), conceived as 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, and now defined as the distance light will travel in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 seconds.
- (American spelling) The overall rhythm of a song or poem; particularly, the number of beats in a measure or syllables in a line.
Related terms
- altimeter
- centimeter
- feed the meter
- kilometer
- metric
- metrical
- millimeter
- odometer
- pedometer
- pentameter
- spectropolarimeter
- tachymeter
- tetrameter
Verb
meter (third-person singular simple present meters, present participle metering, simple past and past participle metered)
- To measure with a metering device.
- To imprint a postage mark with a postage meter.
- To regulate the flow of or to deliver in regulated amounts (usually of fluids but sometimes of other things such as anticipation or breath).
Credits
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