kilometer
noun
How do you pronounce kilometer?: Usage Guide
In North American speech kilometer is most often pronounced with primary stress on the second syllable. This pronunciation is also heard frequently in British speech. Those who object to second syllable stress say that the first syllable should be stressed in accord with the stress patterns of centimeter, millimeter, etc. However, the pronunciation of kilometer does not parallel that of other metric compounds. From 1828 to 1841 Noah Webster indicated only second syllable stress, and his successor added a first syllable stress variant in the first Merriam-Webster dictionary of 1847. Thus, both pronunciations are venerable. Most scientists use second syllable stress, although first syllable stress seems to occur with a higher rate of frequency among scientists than among nonscientists.
Did you know?
A kilometer is equal to about 62/100 of a mile, and a mile is equal to about 1.61 kilometers. The U.S. has been slow to adopt metric measures, which are used almost everywhere else in the world. Though our car speedometers are often marked in both miles and kilometers, the U.S. and Great Britain are practically the only developed nations that still show miles rather than kilometers on their road signs. But even in the U.S., footraces are usually measured in meters or kilometers, like the Olympic races. Runners normally abbreviate kilometer to K: "a 5K race" (3.1 miles), "the 10K run" (6.2 miles), and so on.
Examples of kilometer in a Sentence
Brad Lendon, CNN, 11 Apr. 2024
All light – whether sunlight, a flashlight or a light bulb in your house – travels at 186,000 miles (almost 300,000 kilometers) per second.
—Discover Magazine, 11 Apr. 2024
The hypocenter – the specific spot beneath the earth’s surface where an earthquake originates, also known as the focus – was at a depth of 4.7 kilometers (2.9 miles), according to the USGS.
—Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY, 8 Apr. 2024
The full eclipse will last longer than usual because the moon will be just 223,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) from Earth, one of the year’s closest approaches.
—Marcia Dunn, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2024
Koh Tao is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the coast.
—TIME, 4 Apr. 2024
The county is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.
—Ken Miller, Fortune, 3 Apr. 2024
All three of the lawsuits were against farms in Sunflower County, which is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Jackson.
—Emily Wagster Pettus, Quartz, 2 Apr. 2024
The spears and other tools were carved from spruce, larch, and pine, species that grew many kilometers away from the lake and combined hardness with elasticity.
—Byandrew Curry, science.org, 1 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kilometer.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
French kilomètre, from kilo- + mètre meter
1810, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near kilometer
Cite this Entry
“Kilometer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kilometer. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
kilometer
noun
kil-ˈäm-
Medical Definition
kilometer
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on kilometer
Nglish: Translation of kilometer for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of kilometer for Arabic Speakers
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