Meanings
nounRoman mile (plural Roman miles)
plural Roman miles
- An ancient Roman unit of itinerant distance of 1000 paces (mille passus, hence also "mile" from Latin mille, "1000"). Indirectly standardized to 5000 Roman feet by Agrippa in 29 BC. In modern times, Agrippa's Imperial Roman mile is empirically estimated to have been around 1481 meters (1620 yards, 4860 English feet, 0.92 English miles); compared with a modern mile, which is 5280 feet.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounan ancient Roman unit of length equivalent to 1620 yards
Similar
Broader
linear unitlinear measure
Also see
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Ancient Greek μίλιον
- μίλιον (mílion)Roman unit of length
Finnish roomalainen maili
- roomalainen mailiRoman unit of length
German Meile
- MeileRoman unit of length
Latin mille passuum, mille passus
- mille passuumRoman unit of length
- mille passusRoman unit of length
- milleRoman unit of length
Russian ри́мская ми́ля
- ри́мская ми́ля (rímskaja mílja)Roman unit of length
Cite this entry
APA
Roman mile. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Roman%20mile
MLA
“Roman mile.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Roman%20mile. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Roman mile,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Roman%20mile.
Source: Roman mile on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.