Kilometer - Definition and Overview

A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). It is approximately equal to 0.621 miles, 1094 yards or 3281 feet.

Slang terms for kilometre include "klick" (sometimes spelt "click" or "klik" ) and "kay". All these slang terms can also refer to kilometres per hour.

Unicode has symbols for "km" (㎞), for square kilometre (㎢) and for cubic kilometre (㎦).

hectometre << kilometre << megametre

See also

• 1 E3 m to compare the length of a kilometre
• SI
• SI prefix
• Orders of magnitude
• light year
• parsec