square kilometer
15
2.6
- noun
- /skwɛr ˈkɪləmˌiːtər/
- US
:
kilómetro cuadrado
- The Northwest Territories cover approximately 3.3 million square kilometers, an area roughly the size of India.
- million square kilometers
- square kilometers of land
- approximately square kilometers
Unfortunately, they only arrive about one every square kilometer every thousand years.
- Unfortunately, they only arrive about one every square kilometer every thousand years.
Examples
-
At the heart of the Israel-Syria negotiations lies a small territory of 20 square kilometers.
Academic text (2008) -
And, it's a big one, 2.2 million square kilometers, twice the size of Ontario.
-
Here I found myself with four hundred square kilometers of raw stone.
Fiction book (1995) -
- Yes, the area is 55 square kilometers.
-
How many people per square kilometer do you have?
-
The total size of these countries is 2,476,007 square kilometers, and their total population is about ten million.
Academic text (1991) -
Thus, the actual developable land in Serpong is limited to less than 30 square kilometers.
Academic text (1992) -
The southeast has a population of 288,000 who occupy 10,606 square kilometers of land.
Academic text (1996) -
Altogether, some 25 tons of iron meteorites, scattered over a 1.6 square kilometer area, have been found.
Academic text (1992) -
The vast park covers an area of 5,000 square kilometers, making it one of the largest in Africa.
How Big
84
1.9
- US
15
2.6
- US
10
1.0
- UK
3
1.8
- US
133
1.4
- US
22
1.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a unit of area equal to a kilometer squared' is directly built from combining 'square' (indicating the squared/area sense) with 'kilometer' (a unit of length). This compositional pattern for expressing area (e.g., 'kilómetro cuadrado', 'kilomètre carré') is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Square kilometer comes from the idea of a square that is one kilometer long on each side, so the phrase means the 'area' inside that square. That's why people use it to 'measure' large pieces of land or surfaces.