centimetre

Everyday

Centimetre is the British, Irish, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian way to spell centimeter, a small unit of length about the width of a fingernail. 100 centimetres make 1 metre. A metre is 100 centimetres. A centimetre is 10 millimetres. tree →

In the lessons

a unit of length for lines, sides of shapes and small objects; school rulers show centimetres; phrases «square centimetres» (cm²), «cubic centimetres» (cm³)

Examples

• The worm is 6 centimetres long. tree →
• A rectangle is 8 centimetres by 3 centimetres. tree →
• 1 metre is 100 centimetres. tree →
• The tower is 25 centimetres tall. tree →
• Draw a line 12 centimetres long. tree →
• My hand is about 15 centimetres long. tree →
• The seedling grew 2 centimetres in a week. tree →
• Rain: 3 centimetres fell overnight. tree →
• The shoebox is 30 centimetres long. tree →
• Each square on the grid is one square centimetre. tree →

Note

A unit, not a thing counted. Trap: square centimetres measure area, centimetres measure length. Same meaning as «centimeter»; only the spelling differs (-re in Britain, -er in the USA). Short form «cm».