litre

/ ˈliːtə /

noun

1. one cubic decimetre

2. (formerly) the volume occupied by 1 kilogram of pure water at 4°C and 760 millimetres of mercury. This is equivalent to 1.000 028 cubic decimetres or about 1.76 pints

Word History and Origins

Origin of litre¹

C19: from French, from Medieval Latin litra, from Greek: a unit of weight

Example Sentences

In January this year, a truck carrying about 60,000 litres of petrol overturned near Suleja, also in Niger state, killing at least 86 people and injuring nearly 70 others.

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Until 2019, the kilogram was defined as the mass of one litre of water.

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At around £2 per litre in most supermarkets it's also a more budget friendly option for cooking at home.

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"That's a lot of water. I worked out that 30 tankers means a million litres a day, something like that."

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Under current labelling rules, any drink, other than tea or coffee, with over 150mg of caffeine per litre requires a warning label saying: "High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women."

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