litre

English

Etymology 1

From French litre, from Medieval Latin litra, from Ancient Greek λίτρα (lítra, “a Sicilian coin, a measure of weight”). Related to Latin libra. Doublet of rottol.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.tə/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈli.tɚ/, [ˈli.ɾɚ]
  • Homophone: leader
• Hyphenation: li‧tre
• Rhymes: -iːtə(ɹ)

Noun

litre (plural litres)

2. The metric unit of fluid measure, equal to one cubic decimetre. Symbols: l, L, ℓ

   You should be able to fill four cups with one litre of water.

3. (informal) A measure of volume equivalent to a litre.

Usage notes

• The litre is not an SI unit but is accepted for use with SI units. The official SI symbols are the capital roman "L" or lower-case roman "l". The upper-case "L" is often used in English-speaking countries to avoid confusion with the number "1". The script symbol ℓ, while not officially sanctioned, was sometimes used in non-technical contexts to prevent the lower-case roman l from being confused with 1, the number one.
• This, rather than liter, is the spelling adopted by both the International Bureau of Weights and Measures and the International Organization for Standardization in their English language texts. However the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, in accordance with the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual, has chosen to use liter.

Alternative forms

• liter (US)

Derived terms

• attolitre
• centilitre
• decalitre
• decilitre
• exalitre
• femtolitre
• gigalitre
• hectolitre
• kilolitre
• litrebike
• megalitre
• microlitre
• millilitre
• multilitre
• myrialitre
• nanolitre
• petalitre
• picolitre
• ronnalitre
• teralitre
• yoctolitre
• yottalitre

 

Descendants

• → Hindi: लीटर (līṭar)

Translations

unit of fluid measure

• Albanian: litër (sq) m
• Arabic: لِتْر m (litr)

  Egyptian Arabic: لتر m (letr)

  Moroccan Arabic: اطرو (eṭṛō)

• Armenian: լիտր (hy) (litr)
• Asturian: llitru m
• Azerbaijani: litr (az)
• Belarusian: літр m (litr)
• Bengali: লিটার (bn) (liṭar)
• Breton: litr
• Bulgarian: ли́тър (bg) m (lítǎr)
• Burmese: လီတာ (my) (lita)
• Catalan: litre (ca) m
• Central Dusun: liter
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 升 (sing¹), 公升 (gung¹ sing¹)

  Dungan: гуншын (gunšɨn)

  Mandarin: 升 (zh) (shēng), 公升 (zh) (gōngshēng)

• Czech: litr (cs) m
• Danish: liter (da) c
• Dutch: liter (nl)
• Esperanto: litro (eo)
• Estonian: liiter
• Faroese: litur m, litri m
• Finnish: litra (fi)
• French: litre (fr) m
• Galician: litro (gl) m
• Georgian: ლიტრი (liṭri)
• German: Liter (de) m
• Greek: λίτρο (el) n (lítro)
• Hebrew: לִיטר m (líter)
• Hindi: लीटर m (līṭar)
• Hungarian: liter (hu)
• Icelandic: lítri m
• Ido: litro (io)
• Indonesian: liter (id)
• Irish: lítear m
• Italian: litro (it) m
• Japanese: リットル (ja) (rittoru), ㍑ (ja) (rittoru)
• Jarai: lit
• Kazakh: литр (litr)
• Khmer: លីត្រ (liit)
• Korean: 리터 (ko) (riteo)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لتر (ltir)

• Kyrgyz: литр (ky) (litr)
• Lao: ລິດ (lo) (lit)
• Latvian: litrs m
• Lithuanian: litras m
• Macedonian: литар m (litar)
• Malay: liter (ms)
• Maori: rita
• Mongolian: литр (mn) (litr)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: liter m

  Nynorsk: liter m

• Persian: لیتر (fa) (litr)
• Polish: litr (pl) m
• Portuguese: litro (pt) m
• Romanian: litru (ro) m
• Russian: литр (ru) m (litr)
• Scottish Gaelic: liotair m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ли̏тра f, ли̏тар m

  Latin: lȉtra (sh) f, lȉtar (sh) m

• Sicilian: litru (scn) m
• Sinhalese: ලීටර් (līṭar)
• Slovak: liter (sk) m
• Slovene: liter (sl) m
• Spanish: litro (es) m
• Swahili: lita (sw)
• Swedish: liter (sv) c
• Tagalog: litro
• Tajik: литр (litr)
• Tatar: liter (tt)
• Telugu: లీటరు (līṭaru)
• Thai: ลิตร (th) (lít)
• Tibetan: ཤིང་ཚེ (shing tshe), གཞལ་ཚད་ཞིག (gzhal tshad zhig), ཧྲེང (hreng), བྲེ (bre)
• Turkish: litre (tr)
• Turkmen: litr
• Ukrainian: літр m (litr)
• Urdu: لیٹر m (līṭar)
• Uzbek: litr (uz)
• Vietnamese: lít (vi)
• Welsh: litr
• Yiddish: ליטער m (liter)
• Yoruba: lítà

Etymology 2

Noun

litre (plural litres)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of litter.

Anagrams

• liter, relit, tiler, triel

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from French litre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈli.tɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈli.tɾe]
• Rhymes: -itɾe

Noun

litre m (plural litres)

1. litre

Further reading

• “litre” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “litre”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “litre” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “litre” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin litra, from Ancient Greek λίτρα (lítra, “a Sicilian coin, a measure of weight”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /litʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Noun

litre m (plural litres)

1. litre

Related terms

• litron

Descendants

• → Arabic: لِتْر (litr)

  Egyptian Arabic: لتر (letr)

• → Armenian: լիտր (litr)
• → Asturian: llitru
• → Belarusian: літр (litr)
• → Breton: litr
• → Bulgarian: ли́тър (lítǎr)
• → Catalan: litre
• → Central Dusun: liter
• → Czech: litr
• → Danish: liter
• → Dutch: liter
• → English: litre, liter
• → Esperanto: litro
• → Faroese: litur
• → Finnish: litra
• → Galician: litro
• → German: Liter
• → Greek: λίτρο (lítro)
• → Hebrew: ליטר (liter)
• → Hindi: लीटर (līṭar)
• → Hungarian: liter
• → Icelandic: lítri
• → Irish: lítear
• → Italian: litro
• → Japanese: リットル (rittoru), ㍑ (rittoru)
• → Khmer: លីត្រ (liit)
• → Korean: 리터 (riteo)
• Kurdish:

  → Central Kurdish: لتر (litr)

• → Latvian: litrs
• → Lithuanian: litras
• → Macedonian: литар (litar)
• → Norwegian:

  Bokmål: liter

  Nynorsk: liter

• → Ottoman Turkish: لیتره, لتره (litre)
  • Turkish: litre
  • → Armenian: լիթռա (litʻṙa)
• → Persian: لیتر (litr)
• → Polish: litr
• → Portuguese: litro
• → Romanian: litru
• → Russian: литр (litr)
• → Serbo-Croatian: litar
• → Sicilian: litru
• → Slovak: liter
• → Slovene: liter
• → Spanish: litro
• → Swahili: lita
• → Swedish: liter
• → Tatar: liter
• → Telugu: లీటరు (līṭaru)
• → Thai: ลิตร (lít)
• → Ukrainian: літр (litr)
• → Vietnamese: lít
• → Welsh: litr

Further reading

• “litre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• relit

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈl̠ʲitʲɾʲə/

Noun

litre f

1. (archaic) Alternative form of litreach: genitive singular of litir
2. (archaic) Alternative form of litreacha: nominative plural of litir

References

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “litre”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from French litre.

Noun

litre m (plural litres)

1. (Jersey) litre