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
Andrew Jones, Space.com, 17 July 2025
The satellites will use onboard electric propulsion to raise their orbits and reach their operating altitude of 391 miles (630 kilometers).
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 16 July 2025
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna satellite constellation (LISA) will be three satellites orbiting the sun in a triangular formation, each separated from the other by 2.5 million kilometers, trailing 60 million km behind Earth.
—Tereza Pultarova, IEEE Spectrum, 16 July 2025
The National Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for an area stretching from about 40 miles (64.4 km) southwest of Homer to Unimak Pass, a distance of about 700 miles (1,126 kilometers).
—Mark Thiessen, Chicago Tribune, 16 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for kilometer
Cite this Entry
“Kilometer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kilometer. Accessed 22 Jul. 2025.
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kilometer
noun
kil-ˈäm-
Medical Definition
kilometer
noun
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