meter
Pluralmeters
UK spellingmetre · for the unit and for rhythm in verse
Pluralmeters
Formsmeters, metering, metered
- 1The basic unit of length in the International System of Units, equal to the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second, or about 39.37 inches.
Divers found the wreck at a depth of about forty meters.
The old castle wall is nearly a meter thick at its base.
UsageBritish spelling is metre; American is meter. The short form is m, with no plural s: 40 m.
- 2A device that measures and records the amount or rate of something, such as gas, water, or electricity.
An inspector came to read the gas meter in the basement.
The meter on the dashboard tracks fuel consumption.
UsageSpelled meter in British English too, unlike the unit metre. Common in read the meter, gas meter.
- 3A coin- or card-operated device that collects payment, especially for parking a vehicle for a set period.
She topped up the meter to avoid a fine while she shopped.
Every meter on the block now accepts contactless cards.
- 4
- 5The rhythmic pattern or measure of language, especially verse, and of musical composition.
The translator kept the original meter, so each line still falls into five beats.
A waltz is written in triple meter, with three beats to every bar.
UsageBritish spelling is metre, as for the unit. Rhythm is the looser word for the movement the pattern produces.
Note
The verse sense came into English long before the unit of length, through Old English meter and Old French metre, both from Latin metrum. In much English verse, a poem's meter is its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, counted line by line; in music it is the grouping of beats into bars, as in triple meter.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The rhythmic word derives through Old English meter and Old French metre, both from Latin metrum. en.wiktionary.org
- Poetic meter is measured line by line. open.edu
- Musical meter organizes beats into bars. en.wikisource.org
- Triple meter is an example of musical meter. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 6To regulate the flow of something, or release it in measured amounts, usually a fluid, but sometimes things like breath or anticipation.
The valve meters oxygen into the tank at a steady rate.
A skilled storyteller will meter suspense, releasing it line by line.
- 7To imprint mail with a postage mark using a postage meter rather than an adhesive stamp.
Large companies meter their outgoing mail to save time at the post office.
The clerk metered each envelope before it went out.
Similarfrank
- 8A person who metes out or measures something, such as goods or grain.
Note
The human measurer that the device was named after is now a dated word. It appears mostly in compounds that name the goods being measured, as in 'a labouring coal-meter', someone whose work was measuring coal. The machine has taken over the name.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The measuring-device sense developed from the human-measurer sense. en.wiktionary.org
- The example 'a labouring coal-meter' occurs in a source. en.wiktionary.org
- 9A poem; a composition written in verse.
Note
In this obsolete use, the word named the finished poem rather than its rhythm. The 1556 edition of Ralph Robinson's English translation of Thomas More's Utopia calls a short poem in the Utopian tongue a meter, meaning a piece of verse. Modern readers will hear the rhythm of verse instead.
- 10A reinforcing line running along the upper or lower edge of a hanging net, to which the net is attached to strengthen it.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English metere ("one who measures"), perhaps from Old English metend, built from mete ("to measure") plus -er. The shift from "person who measures" to "device that measures" was probably helped by words like barometer that use -meter.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Meter derives from Middle English metere, meaning one who measures. en.wiktionary.org
- The Middle English word may derive from Old English metend, with a change of suffix. en.wiktionary.org
- Meter is equivalent in formation to mete, meaning to measure, plus -er. en.wiktionary.org
- Association with -meter in words such as barometer probably helped the change from a person who measures to a measuring device. en.wiktionary.org
Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, "measure") lies behind French mètre, which English then took from French.
Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron) gave Latin metrum, which entered Old English as meter and Old French as metre. Both fed into Middle English meter.