liter

[ lee-ter ]

noun

1. a unit of capacity redefined in 1964 by a reduction of 28 parts in a million to be exactly equal to one cubic decimeter. It is equivalent to 1.0567 U.S. liquid quarts and is equal to the volume of one kilogram of distilled water at 4°C. : l

liter

/ ˈliːtə /

noun

1. the US spelling of litre

liter

/ lē′tər /

1. The basic unit of liquid volume or capacity in the metric system, equal to 1.06 quart or 2.12 pints.
2. See Table at measurement
3. The basic unit of dry volume or capacity in the metric system, equal to 0.90 quart or 1.82 pint.
4. See Table at measurement

Word History and Origins

Origin of liter¹

1800–10; < French litre, back formation from litron an old measure of capacity, derivative (with -on noun suffix) of Medieval Latin litra < Greek lítra pound

Example Sentences

It was bottled in the 1980s, and he bought the half-liter bottle for ¥34,000, or about $5,470.

From The Daily Beast

Gracie packed up her Wellington boots, long-sleeved shirts, and trousers, and flew to Caracas with a five-liter alembic still.

From The Daily Beast

Autocracy is just a Russian bad habit, like smoking three packs of cigarettes a day and drinking a liter of vodka.

From The Daily Beast

A six-liter bottle of her 1992 Screaming Eagle set a world record for the highest price ever paid for a single bottle of wine.

From The Daily Beast

In addition, a one-liter Tetra Pak weighs less than a pound.

From The Daily Beast

This material was thoroughly macerated and put into ten-liter bottles with ether.

From Project Gutenberg

Hence the number of grams of a given substance in a liter divided by its molecular weight represents its concentration.

From Project Gutenberg

This form of expressing concentrations is in many particulars preferable to the mole/liter form.

From Project Gutenberg

In such a solution, the concentration of silver-ion is reduced to 8E24 gram-ion per liter.

From Project Gutenberg

It contained only a half-liter bottle, wax-sealed, containing a dark reddish-brown syrup.

From Project Gutenberg