centimeter
Americannoun
-
centimeters
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of centimeter
From the French word centimètre, dating back to 1795–1805. See centi-, meter 1
Explanation
In the metric system, a centimeter is a unit of measurement that's about one-third the size of an inch. There are approximately 30 centimeters in a foot. The word centimeter comes from the French centimètre, a combination of the Latin word for "hundred," centum, and the French mètre. A centimeter is one hundredth of a meter—in other words, there are one hundred centimeters in one meter. In just about every part of the world besides the U.S., this word is spelled centimetre.
Vocabulary lists containing centimeter
Measurement and Data
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: cent
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: meter, metr
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It’s also a half-pound lighter and a centimeter thinner than the standard Pro.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
They grow about a centimeter or two a year and by sampling cores at the millimeter scale, the team was able to develop windows of monthly temperature records scattered across the past millennium.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
This makes it possible to use very small quantities of the metal, typically less than one quarter of a milligram per square centimeter.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
TOI-791 b has a density of just 0.038 grams per cubic centimeter, while TOI-791 c measures 0.047 grams per cubic centimeter.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 27, 2026
After a while, centimeter by centimeter, Rupa began to pull the stick out of the cave.
From "Tiger Boy" by Mitali Perkins
I have been gravitating toward shorter skis—around 155 to 160 centimeters long, more the length of what a beginning skier might get—to limit my speed and improve my maneuverability.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
Compare that to my wild and crazy college days, when I owned skis more than 200 centimeters long that I could never quite control.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
The researchers found that LC axons measured approximately 35 centimeters long on average.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2026
One particularly extraordinary axon had a total reconstructed length of 70.32 centimeters, making it part of the longest single neuron ever measured in a mouse.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2026
Think how many cubic centimeters there are in the world outside your window–how many sugar cubes it would take to fill that view.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
