klick
23
9.8
An informal word for one kilometer often used by soldiers
- noun
- /klɪk/
- Slang
:
kilómetro
- We had to walk a couple of klicks, there and back.
- hundred klicks
- about forty klicks
- two klicks
Examples
-
Ground team is five klicks out.
-
Target is half a klick southwest.
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We're close, maybe one or two klicks till we're through the forest.
-
We got a lot of klicks to cover!
-
It's about 2 klicks out.
-
Two klicks to the left.
-
The third battalion just got hit 15 klicks north of here.
-
If they're within 20 klicks we'll read it out here.
-
There's an island 60 klicks southeast of us.
-
The enemy is located five klicks east of our current position.
Synonyms
Surface Forms
Etymology
Klick is a short, informal form of kilometre and probably comes from the quick 'click' sound people heard from a measuring device or simply from saying kilometre faster. So a klick means 'one kilometre', and the short, sharp word made it useful for soldiers on the radio and on maps.