mile
/maɪ̯l/noun
mile is spelled M-I-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 39 times per million words in written English, the 2,523rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Mile, the name). As a noun, mile means “The international mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 1.609344 kilometers established by treaty among Anglophone nations in 1959, divided into…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mile is miles.
How many letters and syllables are in mile?
| Letters | 4: M-I-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 39 times per million words; the 2,523rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is mile?
Mile appears 39 times per million words in written English, the 2,523rd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Mile, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce mile?
- US /maɪ̯l/
- US [maɪ̯ɫ]
- /maɪ.əl/
Mile has one syllable (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-us-mile.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mile.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with mile?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mile from its last stressed vowel (/aɪl/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lime.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of mile
- miles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mile mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The international mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 1.609344 kilometers established by treaty among Anglophone nations in 1959, divided into 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards.
Turn left in 1.2 miles.
- 2
Any of several customary units of length derived from the 1593 English statute mile of 8 furlongs, equivalent to 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards of various precise values.
- 3
Any of many customary units of length derived from the Roman mile (mille passus) of 8 stades or 5,000 Roman feet.
- 4
The Scandinavian mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 10 kilometers defined in 1889.
- 5
Any of many customary units of length from other measurement systems of roughly similar values, as the Chinese mile or Arabic mile.
- 6
An airline mile in a frequent flyer program.
- 7
informalAny similarly large distance.
The shot missed by a mile.
- 8
A race of 1 mile's length; a race of around 1 mile's length (usually 1500 or 1600 meters)
The runners competed in the mile.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate mile?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of mile: m, mi..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mile in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 mile come from?
From Middle English myle, mile, from Old English mīl, from Proto-West Germanic *mīliju, a borrowing of Latin mīlia, mīllia, plural of mīle, mīlle (“mile”) (literally ‘thousand’ but used as a short form of mīlle passūs (“a thousand paces”)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).