mile - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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”)).

mile (plural miles or (UK colloquial) **mile)

  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.
    Turn left in 1.2 miles.
    You need to go about three mile down the road. (UK colloquial plural)
    3.6 km is about 2 miles.
  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.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate: A Novel, page 16:
      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[1], volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 17 October 2021, 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.
    • 2024 November 15, Kristen Rogers, “Want to live an extra 5 to 10 years? Adopt this habit, study suggests”, in CNN‎[2], archived from the original on 11 July 2025:
      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.
  3. Any of many customary units of length derived from the Roman mile (mille passus) of 8 stades or 5,000 Roman feet.
  4. The Scandinavian mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 10 kilometers defined in 1889.
  5. Any of many customary units of length from other measurement systems of roughly similar values, as the Chinese mile or Arabic mile.
  6. (travel) An airline mile in a frequent flyer program.
  7. (informal) Any similarly large distance.
    The shot missed by a mile.
    My legs felt stiff and leaden from miles of walking.
  8. (athletics) 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.
  9. (colloquial) One mile per hour, as a measure of speed.
    five miles over the speed limit

measure of length

informal: large distance

informal: one mile per hour

Inherited from Old Czech mile, míle. By surface analysis, milý +‎ -e.

mile (comparative mileji, superlative nejmileji)

  1. kindly, warmly

From Old Norse melr. Related to male.

mile c (singular definite milen, plural indefinite miler)

  1. dune

Via Low German mile, from Latin mīlliārium.

mile c (singular definite milen, plural indefinite miler)

  1. charcoal stack
  2. atomic pile

From English mile. Doublet of mil.

mile (singular definite -, plural indefinite miles)

  1. mile

From English mile.

mile m (plural miles)

  1. mile

mile

  1. mile (unit of measure)

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

mile

  1. millet (grass used as grain)
  2. The seed of millet.

mile

  1. alternative form of myle (“mile”)

mīle

  1. inflection of mīl:
    1. nominative plural
    2. accusative singular/plural
    3. genitive/dative singular

From Latin mīlle (plural mīlia).

mile

  1. one thousand

Proto-Indo-European *-is

Proto-Balto-Slavic *-is

Proto-Slavic *-ь

Old Polish -e

Polish -e

Polish mile

From miły + -e.

mile (comparative milej, superlative najmilej)

  1. kindly, warmly

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

mile f

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of mila

mile f pl

  1. plural of milă

mile (Cyrillic spelling миле)

  1. inflection of mio:
    1. masculine accusative plural
    2. feminine genitive singular
    3. feminine nominative/accusative/vocative plural

From Middle English mille, from Old English mylen.

mile

  1. mill
    • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 12, page 88:
      Licke a mope an a mile, he gazt ing a mize;
      Like a fool in a mill, he looked in amazement;
    • 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 1, page 102:
      Dhicka die fan ich want to a mile.
      That day when I went to the mill.