# mile

Pronunciation: say "MYL" /maɪ̯l/

## Noun

1. A unit of length equal to 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet; the international mile, set by international agreement in 1959, is exactly 1.609344 kilometers, and older statute miles differ only slightly.
   - Simple: A unit for measuring distance, equal to 1,760 yards or about 1.6 kilometers.
   - _The marathon route covered just over twenty-six miles._
   - _Each mile on the highway is marked with a green sign._
2. A long distance or wide margin, called a mile or miles for emphasis rather than as an exact measurement. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A long distance, when you do not mean an exact measurement.
   - _With two weeks left before the election, the front-runner was ahead by a mile in every poll._
   - _The finish line still felt a mile off, though it was only a few blocks away._
3. A unit of speed equal to one mile per hour, usually used in the plural to state how fast something is moving. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A speed of one mile traveled in one hour, used when talking about how fast something goes.
   - _Police caught the driver doing twenty miles over the limit near the school._
   - _On the interstate he was doing a good ten miles faster than the trucks beside him._
4. A nautical mile: the unit of distance that ships and aircraft navigate by, exactly 1,852 meters.
   - Simple: A distance used by ships and planes to find their way, exactly 1,852 meters.
   - _The navigator marked their position on the chart, one mile south of the harbor buoy._
   - _Air traffic control cleared the jet to descend once it was within forty miles of the runway._
5. A unit of credit earned in an airline's frequent flyer program, redeemable toward flights, upgrades, and other rewards.
   - Simple: A point you earn in an airline reward program, used to get cheaper or free flights.
   - _He redeemed his miles for an upgrade to business class._
   - _She books all her work trips on the same airline, because every mile she earns brings her closer to a free flight home._
6. A footrace covering one mile, or a race of approximately that length, often run over 1,500 or 1,600 meters.
   - Simple: A running race that is one mile long.
   - _The mile remains one of the most celebrated events in track and field._
   - _Coaches often enter their best athletes in both the mile and the half-mile._
8. Any of numerous traditional measures of distance that descend from the Roman mile, or mille passus, a length of 5,000 Roman feet or eight stades.
   - Simple: The old Roman mile of 5,000 Roman feet, or any of the old units of distance that came from it.
   - _Roman engineers set a marker at the end of each mile along the great highways._
   - _Travelers across the empire measured their journeys in Roman miles._
9. Any of various traditional units of length in other measuring systems, such as the Chinese or Arabic mile, that are roughly comparable in size.
   - Simple: A unit of distance from another country's old measuring system, roughly like the English mile.
   - _Medieval Arab geographers measured distances in their own mile, somewhat longer than the Roman one._
   - _If you read an old Chinese travel diary, keep in mind that the Chinese mile it uses was a different length from the English one._

## Adverb

7. By a great deal; much, used to give extra force to a comparative such as better or easier.
   - Simple: A lot, used before words like better or faster to make them stronger.
   - _If you ask me, the sequel is miles funnier than the original movie._
   - _The new version of the app is miles easier to use than the old one._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A unit of length used in Norway and Sweden, fixed at exactly ten kilometers when the two countries adopted the metric system.

## Origin

Latin mīlia, plural of mīlle ('thousand'), was borrowed into Proto-West Germanic as *mīliju, which gave Old English mīl and then Middle English myle. Taken literally the Latin meant 'thousand', but it served as shorthand for mīlle passūs, 'a thousand paces'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/mile (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).