meter

Multiple Entries:
  meter    -meter    metre  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
meter1

▶noun a device that measures and records the quantity, degree, or rate of something. ▶verb (often as adj. metered) measure with a meter.

– origin ME (in the sense ‘person who measures’): from mete1 + -er1.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
meter2

▶noun US spelling of metre1, metre2.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
-meter/mɪtə/

▶combining form

• 1 in names of measuring instruments: thermometer.

• 2 Prosody in nouns denoting lines of poetry with a specified number of measures: hexameter.

– origin from Gk metron ‘measure’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
metre1 (US meter) (abbrev.: m)

▶noun the fundamental unit of length in the metric system, equal to 100 centimetres (approx. 39.37 inches).

– derivatives
metreage noun.

– origin C18: from Fr. mètre, from Gk metron ‘measure’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
metre2 (US meter)

▶noun

• 1 the rhythm of a piece of poetry, determined by the number and length of feet in a line.

• 2 the basic rhythmic pattern of beats in a piece of music.

– origin OE, reinforced in ME by OFr. metre, from L. metrum, from Gk metron ‘measure’.