-meter

See also: meter, metër, Meter, and méter

English

Alternative forms

-metre (UK, nonstandard)
-o-meter, -ometer

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *med-

Proto-Indo-European *meh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr

Proto-Indo-European *-om

Proto-Indo-European *-trom

Proto-Hellenic *-tron

Ancient Greek -τρον (-tron)

Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron)lbor.

French -mètrebor.

English -meter

Borrowed from French -mètre,^[1] a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron).

Pronunciation

enPR: -mĭ-tər
(Received Pronunciation, Australia) IPA^(key): /-mɪ.tə/
- Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /-mɪ.təɹ/
(New Zealand) IPA^(key): /-mə.tə/
(Scotland) IPA^(key): /-mɪ.təɾ/
(India) IPA^(key): /-mɪ.ʈɜː(ɾ)/, /-mɪ.ʈəɾ/
Hyphenation: -me‧ter

Suffix

-meter (noun-forming suffix, plural -meters)

Used to form the names of measuring devices.

Usage notes

Whereas the spelling of the unit of length varies between British (metre) and American (meter) English, the spelling of this suffix is -meter in both, while -metre is a nonstandard alternative form found in British English.
Words with the suffix -ometer (compare -o-) always have a primary stress on the antepenultimate syllable: barometer, speedometer, tachometer, etc. Words derived from meter / metre with a prefix usually have a primary stress on the first syllable: centimeter, millimeter, etc.

Derived terms

English terms suffixed with -meter

electrotelethermometer

Translations

used to form a measuring device

Asturian: -metru m
Azerbaijani: ölçən
Catalan: -metre (ca) m
Danish: -meter (da)
Dutch: -meter
Finnish: -metri (fi)
French: -mètre (fr)
Galician: -metro (gl) m
Georgian: -მეტრი (-meṭri)
German: -meter (de) m or n
Greek: -μετρο (el) n (-metro)
Hebrew: מַד־ m (mád-), ־מטר (-méter)
Hungarian: -mérő (hu)
Irish: -méadar m
Italian: -metro (it) m
Japanese: 計 (ja) (kei)
Korean: 계 (ko) (gye)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: -پێو (-pêw)

Northern Kurdish: -pîv
Persian:
Dari: ـسَنْج (-sanj)

Iranian Persian: ـسَنْج (-sanj)
Polish: -mierz (pl) m, -metr (pl) m
Portuguese: -metro (pt) m
Romanian: -metru n
Russian: -ме́р m (-mér), -метр m (-metr)
Spanish: -metro (es) m
Swedish: -meter (sv)

References

^ “-meter”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN, page 1107, column 1.

Anagrams

-metre, -treme, Emert, metre, remet, retem

German

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure, size, distance; moderate amount, proportion”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [-ˈmeːtɐ]
Audio (Germany (Berlin)): (file)
Rhymes: -eːtɐ
Hyphenation: -me‧ter

Suffix

-meter m or n (strong, genitive -meters, plural -meter)

-meter (device to measure a certain property)

Declension

Declension of *-meter* [masculine // neuter, strong]
	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der, das	-meter	die	-meter
genitive	eines	des	-meters	der	-meter
dative	einem	dem	-meter	den	-metern
accusative	einen, ein	den, das	-meter	die	-meter