imperial gallon
- noun
- /ɪmˈpɪəriəl ˈɡælən/
- UK
:
galón imperial
- In the UK, petrol is often sold by the imperial gallon rather than the US gallon.
Examples
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The tank holds 10 imperial gallons of water.
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One imperial gallon of water weighs approximately 10 pounds at its maximum density.
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He needed to convert liters to imperial gallons for the British recipe.
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How many imperial gallons are in a barrel?
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In the UK, petrol is often sold by the imperial gallon rather than the US gallon.
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He needed to convert liters to imperial gallons for the British recipe.
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The tank holds 10 imperial gallons of water.
Synonyms
A British measure of liquid equal to four quarts or about 4.5 litres
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'imperial' specifies a variant of the unit 'gallon', so a learner who knows both words will understand this is the British/formal type of gallon (a unit of capacity). They may not know the exact litre conversion, but the referential meaning is transparent and cross-linguistically modellable, making it predictable for B1 learners.
Etymology
Imperial gallon comes from when Britain set one official size for a 'gallon' so the whole empire used the same amount; gallon was an old word for a liquid measure and imperial shows it was the empire's official size. So, today imperial gallon means the British gallon of about 4.545 liters used for liquids.