Mile

• POS: Noun, Adverb

CIDE DICTIONARY

Mile, n. [AS. mīl, fr. L. millia, milia; pl. of mille a thousand, i. e., milia passuum a thousand paces. Cf. Mill the tenth of a cent, Million.].

 A certain measure of distance, being equivalent in England and the United States to 320 poles or rods, or 5,280 feet.  [1913 Webster]
" The distance called a mile varies greatly in different countries. Its length in yards is, in Norway, 12,182; in Brunswick, 11,816; in Sweden, 11,660; in Hungary, 9,139; in Switzerland, 8,548; in Austria, 8,297; in Prussia, 8,238; in Poland, 8,100; in Italy, 2,025; in England and the United States, 1,760; in Spain, 1,552; in the Netherlands, 1,094."  [1913 Webster]

Geographical mile or Nautical mile, one sixtieth of a degree of a great circle of the earth, or 6080.27 feet. -- Mile run. Same as Train mile. See under Train. -- Roman mile, a thousand paces, equal to 1,614 yards English measure. -- Statute mile, a mile conforming to statute, that is, in England and the United States, a mile of 5,280 feet, as distinguished from any other mile.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Mile, n.
1 (also statute mile) a unit of linear measure equal to 1,760 yards (approx. 1.609 kilometres).
2 hist. a Roman measure of 1,000 paces (approx. 1,620 yards).
3 (in pl.) colloq. a great distance or amount (miles better; beat them by miles).
4 a race extending over a mile.

Etymology

OE mil ult. f. L mil(l)ia pl. of mille thousand (see sense 2)

ROGET THESAURUS

Mile

Length

N length, longitude, span, mileage, distance, line, bar, rule, stripe, streak, spoke, radius, lengthening, prolongation, production, protraction, tension, tensure, extension, line, nail, inch, hand, palm, foot, cubit, yard, ell, fathom, rood, pole, furlong, mile, league, chain, link, arpent, handbreadth, jornada, kos, vara, astronomical unit, AU, light- year, parsec, nanometer, nm, micron, micrometer, millimicron, millimeter, mm, centimeter, cm, meter, kilometer, km, pedometer, perambulator, scale, long, longsome, lengthy, wiredrawn, outstretched, lengthened, sesquipedalian, interminable, no end of, macrocolous, linear, lineal, longitudinal, oblong, as long as my arm, as long as today and tomorrow, unshortened &c (shorten), lengthwise, at length, longitudinally, endlong, along, tandem, in a line, in perspective, from end to end, from stem to stern, from head to foot, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, from top to toe, fore and aft.