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cubic foot

cubic foot

17 3.0
A measure of space equal to a cube one foot on each side
  • noun
  • /ˈkjuːbɪk fʊt/
  • US
translation icon : pie cúbico
  • Each plastic bin is 37 cubic feet, insulated, and has gasketed lids and an aeration floor.
  • trillion cubic feet
  • thousand cubic feet
  • million cubic feet

Examples

  • Working capacities from 1 to 300 cubic feet are available.

    Academic text (1998)
  • When complete, the Crystal Palace enclosed a total of 33 million cubic feet of space.

    Academic text (2008)
  • It's changing at a rate of a million cubic feet an hour.

  • Maximum flood rates reached 1.6 million cubic feet per second.

    Academic text (2002)
  • In May 2007, they announced the discovery of an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet of gas.

    Academic text (2008)
  • You're talking about 62 pounds per cubic foot.

  • The Yadana field is believed to contain 5.7 trillion cubic feet of gas.

    Academic text (2001)
  • The dam contains nearly 90 million cubic feet of concrete that weighs about 5.5 million tons.

    Academic text (2001)
  • The worksite boasts more than 46,000 cubic feet of temperature-controlled storage units.

    Academic text (2003)
  • The storage unit can hold up to 150 cubic feet of boxes and furniture.

Synonyms

cu ft
vscubic foot
  • Specialized
1 3.2

A measure of space the size of a cube one foot on each side

is the full written form rather than an abbreviation

How Big

cubic meter
9 2.7
cubic yard
  • US
4 2.6
cubic foot
  • US
17 3.0
cubic inch
  • US
4 3.0

Surface Forms

cubic foot singular
cubic feet plural

Morphology

cubic + foot

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'cubic' (a three-dimensional cube) + 'foot' (the unit of length), indicating the volume of a cube with one-foot sides. This is a standard measurement term found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Cubic foot comes from a simple picture: a cube that is exactly one foot long on every side. That little cube shows how much space something takes, so a cubic foot means 'a unit of volume' used to measure how much room liquids, gas, or goods take.