odometer
Americannoun
noun
-
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.
-
Compare speedometer
Other Word Forms
- odometrical adjective
- odometry noun
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.
The car had its original V-8 engine, and the odometer read about 21,000—super low mileage.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 21, 2025
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
The odometer is the device which measures the distance travelled by the vehicle.
From BBC • Jan. 24, 2025
And change isn’t always for the better, with every day another click on James’ odometer that will, in one of the NBA’s great mysteries, eventually max out.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 21, 2024
Never buy a car whose odometer doesn’t work.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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.
