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libra

/ˈliːbrə/noun

libra is a noun meaning “A Roman unit of mass, usually equivalent to 327 g” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled L-I-B-R-A and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 1 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of libra is libras or librae.

What does libra mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A Roman unit of mass, usually equivalent to 327 g.

  2. 2

    A traditional Spanish unit of mass, usually around 460 g.

  3. 3

    A traditional Portuguese unit of mass, usually equivalent to 345 g and particularly used for trade in medicines.

  4. 4

    Synonym of arratel, a separate Portuguese unit of mass, usually around 460 g.

  5. 5

    Alternative spelling of libbra, a traditional Italian unit of mass.

  6. 6

    Synonym of pound, a notional pound of silver as a money of account, especially in medieval contexts.

noun

as Libra
  1. 1

    Someone with a Libra star sign.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce libra?

  • /ˈliːbrə/
  • /ˈlaɪbrə/

Libra has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-ca-libra-weight.oga, En-us-Libra.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of libra

  • libras plural
  • librae plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is libra?

Libra appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,549th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Libra in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense Someone with a Libra star sign:

LanguageWords
FrenchBalance
GermanWaage
Portugueselibriano

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does libra come from?

From Latin lībra (“pound”), partially via Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese libra. Doublet of arratel, libbra, Libra, lira, litra, litre, livre, and rottol.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).