geographical mile

American  

noun

geographical miles plural

1. a unit of distance defined as the length of one minute of latitude or longitude at the equator: approximately 1855 meters or 2029 yards.

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geographical mile British  

noun

1. a former name for nautical mile

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• geographical miles
  plural

Example Sentences

Assuming every thousand fathoms roughly to represent a geographical mile, the area would be of nine square miles.

From To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II A Personal Narrative by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

Mr. Kendall and I were employed in measuring a geographical mile on the small lake, preparatory to a series of observations on the velocity of sound.

From Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea by Franklin, John

This at first does not appear much; but is, nevertheless, a considerable tax, when it is remembered that seven wersts are only equal to a geographical mile, and that three horses are always used.

From A Woman's Journey Round the World by Pfeiffer, Ida

Indeed, in nautical parlance, the words knot and mile are synonyms, alluding to the geographical mile of 60′ to a degree of latitude.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

On the surface of the earth, at the equator, each side of this polygon would be one-sixtieth of a geographical mile, or 101.46 feet.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 531, March 6, 1886 by Various