Mile Meaning
/maɪ̯l/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe international mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 1.609344 kilometers established by treaty among Anglophone nations in 1959, divided into 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards.
nounAny of several customary units of length derived from the 1593 English statute mile of 8 furlongs, equivalent to 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards of various precise values.
Sentence Examples
The bridge is one mile above.
The school stands about one mile off.
The beach is a mile away.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The nearest gas station is only one ____ away from our house.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The school is located exactly one ____ away from our house, so my brother and I usually walk there together every morning.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English myle, mile, from Old English mīl, from Proto-West Germanic *mīliju, a borrowing of Latin mīlia, mīllia, plural of mīle, mīlle (“mile”) (literally ‘thousand’ but used as a short form of mīlle passūs (“a thousand paces”)).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn."
— 1892, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate: A Novel, page 16:
"Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall."
— 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
"From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.[…] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip."
— 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 17 Oct 2021, page 52:
"Total activity levels in the lowest quartile were equivalent to walking for 49 minutes at roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) per hour daily. Total activity levels in the second-, third- and fourth-highest quartiles were equivalent to 78, 105 and 160 minutes, respectively."
— 2024 November 15, Kristen Rogers, “Want to live an extra 5 to 10 years? Adopt this habit, study suggests”, in CNN, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2025:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The nearest gas station is only one ____ away from our house.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The school is located exactly one ____ away from our house, so my brother and I usually walk there together every morning.