speedometer
Americannoun
noun
-
An instrument for indicating the speed of a vehicle, typically by measuring the rate of rotation of a wheel or fan whose rate of rotation depends on the speed of the vehicle.
-
Compare odometer
Etymology
Origin of speedometer
Explanation
The device in a car that measures how fast you're going is the speedometer. Most speedometers can measure as much as 160 miles per hour — even though it's illegal to drive that fast in the U.S. The traditional speedometer is a dial with a needle that moves to the right as you press on the gas pedal. Sometimes these devices simply display the digital numeric value of your speed, registering 50 and then 48 as the driver begins to slow down. Speedometers began to be a standard feature in automobiles around 1910, just a bit after the word was coined by adding the Greek-derived suffix -meter, or "a measure," to speed.
Vocabulary lists containing speedometer
Frankenwords: Words with Roots from Different Languages
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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 Speedometer benchmark is meant to simulate what it’s like to use a web app running using various technologies to see how responsive the experience is.
From The Verge • Mar. 7, 2022
Google has said that the latest Chrome update, version M99, is setting records on Apple’s own Speedometer web benchmark and is even faster and more responsive on Macs than Safari.
From The Verge • Mar. 7, 2022
That additional 200 million doses the U.S. secured brings the country’s reserved vaccine dose count to 1.2 billion doses, according to data compiled by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center’s Launch and Scale Speedometer.
From Slate • Feb. 22, 2021
But my 510 was updated with a Speedhut Speedometer, which uses GPS.
From The Wall Street Journal • Aug. 24, 2016
Nowadays he comes zipping up in a This Year's Model of the Kokomobile with Torpedo Body, Fore-Doors and Red Cushions and draws out his Balance so that he can get Extra Tires and a Speedometer.
From Knocking the Neighbors by Ade, George
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.
