kilogram
Pluralkilograms
- 1The base unit of mass in the International System of Units, originally defined as the mass of one liter of water and now fixed using the Planck constant.
Each kilogram of the alloy was checked against the laboratory's standard reference.
Scientists around the world rely on the kilogram as the fixed unit of mass.
Note
Its name already carries a prefix: kilo- plus gram, borrowed from French kilogramme. Smaller and larger units are therefore built on the gram, never on the kilogram itself. Below it sit milligram, microgram and nanogram, and above it megagram and gigagram. The symbol is lowercase kg. Its definition has changed as well. Matthew Robinson and Lianne Kolirin reported in 2018 that a vote had redefined it and sent Le Grand K into retirement.
- 2A unit of weight defined so that an object with a mass of one kilogram also has a weight of one kilogram.
Her suitcase tipped the airport scale at exactly twenty kilograms.
A single kilogram of fruit pressed down noticeably on the hanging scale.
Note
The everyday kilogram is the one on price tags and scales. Central Asia (1990) prices beef at 800 Afghanis a kilogram, and Reshma M. Khan et al. (2015) record a weight gain of 13.5 kilograms. Careful scientific writing objects to this use. It keeps weight and mass apart and reserves the kilogram for the unit of mass. In ordinary life both give the same number, so the loose use is everywhere, but technical prose avoids it.
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Origin
Borrowed from French "kilogramme." By its parts, it breaks down into "kilo-" plus "gram."