odometer
Americannoun
noun
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An instrument for indicating the distance traveled by a vehicle, typically by measuring the number of rotations of a wheel or fan whose rate of rotation depends on the speed of the vehicle.
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Compare speedometer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of odometer
1785–95, variant of hodometer < Greek hodó ( s ) way + -meter
Explanation
The instrument in your car that shows you how far you've driven is called an odometer. When you buy a used car, it's important to check the odometer to see how many miles it has traveled. The odometers in today's cars are electronic, but there may be an odometer on any form of transportation, including your bike, and some of these may run mechanically. There's historical evidence that odometers were used in both ancient Greece and ancient China. In the seventeenth century, odometers measured the distance traveled by horse-drawn carriages. Odometer comes from the Greek roots hodos, "way," and metron, "a measure."
Vocabulary lists containing odometer
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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:
My head was tilted at an angle that brought the odometer into view, so I squinted: It was about to hit a half-million.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
He said the state could combat cheating by shrinking the price difference between regular and historic plates, and by pairing mileage limits with odometer checks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
Bloomberg Kiel Porter reported he paid just over $30,000 in November for a used 2022 Honda CR-V hybrid with 41,000 miles on the odometer.
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2025
Shaun Thomas, 61, a bricklayer from Hastings, unknowingly bought a van from the group which had had nearly 100,000 miles taken off the odometer.
From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2025
December 31, 1999, is the evening when the great odometer in the sky clicks ahead.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
One question: Do those odometers actually work and measure speed?
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2026
The BBC has spoken to other Keir Allan customers whose claims include them returning to vandalised cars, finding hundreds more miles on their odometers and dashcam footage showing a trip to Burger King.
From BBC ● May 23, 2025
Drivers could agree to having their vehicles tracked by a GPS or have their odometers manually inspected.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2023
The company's car-sharing platform currently collects data via wireless devices to run diagnostics, read odometers, check fuel gauges and switch cars between users.
From Reuters ● Feb. 16, 2023
Factoring in the rising mileage on their odometers, Memphis better cash in their chips while they can.
From Golf Digest ● May 23, 2017
Definitions 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.
