LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
English → Latin

“mile” in Latin

The English word mile itself goes back to Latin mīlle, through mīlia.

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

mile
Roman, mille passuum, passus mille (consisting of a thousand paces of five feet each, therefore = 5000 feet, i. e., about 1618 English yards, being 142 yards less than the English mile); plur., millia passuum, or simply millia (with mention of the number of miles): milliarium spatium (the length of a thousand paces; also, in plur., of several such spaces): milliarium (sc. marmor) lapis (a mile-stone; hence, to denote distances). A useful pian by which we can know how many miles we have gone, ratio non inutilis, qua scire possimus, quot millia numero itineris fecerimus (Vitr., 10, 9 [14], 1); ita (calculus) et sonitu et numero indicabit milliaria spatia navigationis (how many miles we have sailed; ib., § 7): A mile from Alexandria, a primo milliario Alexandriae (Ulp., Dig., 28, 5, 4, § 1): the Veientes and Fidenates, who live respectively six and eighteen miles from Rome, Veientes et Fidenates, quorum alii sexto milliario absunt ab urbe Roma, alii octavo decimo (Eutropius, 1, 4): he is buried in the Appian road, five miles from the city, sepultus est juxta viam Appiam, ad quintum lapidem (Nep., Att., 22, extr.): both the town and the estates are more than a hundred and fifty miles from Rome), et municipium et agri sunt ultra centesimum et quinquagesimum lapidem (Plin., Ep., 10, 24, extr.): a mile long, milliarius (Suet., Ner., 31): he was making a canal from Lake Avernus to Ostia, a hundred and sixty miles long, inchoabat fossam ab Averno Ostiam usque longitudinis per centum sexaginta millia (sc. passuum, Suet., Ner., 31). (It is obvious that the same phraseology may be employed with reference to English miles, when the context sufficiently determines the sense.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for mile?
The usual Latin words for “mile” are mīlle, mīlliārium, lapis; also ita. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.