meter

noun

US spelling of metre¹.

1. a device that measures and records the quantity, degree, or rate of something.

   an electricity meter

1. measure or regulate by means of a meter.

   the huge capital outlay required to meter every household is not available

   predictions that electricity would soon be too cheap to meter went unfulfilled

Middle English (in the sense ‘person who measures’): from mete¹ + -er¹. The current sense dates from the 19th century.

noun

US spelling of metre².

1. in names of measuring instruments.

   thermometer

2. in nouns denoting lines of poetry with a specified number of measures.

   hexameter

from Greek metron ‘measure’.

1. the SI base unit of length (equivalent to approximately 39.37 inches), first introduced as a unit of length in the metric system.

   sit two metres away from the TV screen

   the wall was less than a metre high

late 18th century: from French mètre, from Greek metron ‘measure’.

1. the rhythm of a piece of poetry, determined by the number and length of feet in a line.

   the Horatian ode has an intricate governing metre

   unexpected changes of stress and metre

Old English, reinforced in Middle English by Old French metre, from Latin metrum, from Greek metron ‘measure’.