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Definition: Metre from Black's Medical Dictionary, 43rd Edition

The basic unit of length in the modern version of the metric system, known as the International System of Units (SI). It is equivalent to 39·37 inches.


meter, unit of measure

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
abbr. m, fundamental unit of length in the metric system . The meter was originally defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the equator and either pole; however, the original survey was inaccurate and the meter was later defined simply as the distance between two scratches on a bar made of a platinum-iridium alloy and kept at Sevres, France, near Paris. More recently, it has been defined as the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. The meter is now the legal standard of length for most of the world, other standards, such as the yard, being defined in terms of the meter. …
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Full text Article metre

From The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics
Symbol: m. The SI unit of length, equal to the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second. The original unit was defined by the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1791 as one ten-millionth of the length of the quadrant of…
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Full text Article metre

From Word Origins
Greek métron meant ‘measure’: it came ultimately from the Indo-European base *me - ‘measure’, which also produced English measure, immense , etc. English originally acquired it, via Latin metrum and Old French metre , in the sense ‘measured rhythmic pattern of verse’. Then at the end of the 18th…
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Full text Article metre

From The Penguin Dictionary of Physics
Symbol: m. The SI UNIT of length, defined (since 1983) as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time 1/299 792 458 second. The metre was originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the quadrant from the equator to the north pole through Dunkirk, but difficulties in…
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Full text Article metre

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
In poetry, the rhythmic pattern of a poetic line. Various principles have been devised to organize poetic lines into rhythmic units. Quantitative verse, the metre of Classical Greek and Latin poetry, measures the length of time required to pronounce syllables, regardless of their stress; …
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Full text Article metre

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
In music, refers to the number and value of the beats in a bar of music. It is also known as time . Metre is different from rhythm in that it is regular (although the number can change as in the additive metres of African music and the works of Olivier Messiaen), whereas rhythm is irregular. The…
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Full text Article metre

From The New Penguin Dictionary of Music
The organization of rhythm in regular patterns of strong and weak beats, or an example of such organization (e.g. common time, with its pattern of strong-weak-moderate-weak). The term comes from poetry (e.g. iambic metre: weak-strong, weak-strong), but musical metres themselves are mostly…
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Full text Article International Metre Class,

From The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
a class of racing yacht designed under the International Rule of the International Yacht Racing Union ( IYRU ), now the International Sailing Federation ( ISAF ), which was formulated in 1906 and came into force in 1908, though yachts built to it were racing in 1907. It was to be in force for ten…
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Full text Article rhythm and metre

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Two aspects of the organization of time in music. Rhythm is the placement of musical sounds in time. Metre, like poetical metre , is usually a regular pattern of beats and provides the context in which rhythm is understood. In Western notated music, metre is indicated by means of a time signature—in…
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Full text Article metre

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
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Full text Article -metre

From The Macquarie Dictionary
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