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mph

mph

201 2.3
A measure of speed showing how many miles you travel in one hour
  • noun
translation icon : millas por hora
  • The speed limit on this highway is 55 mph.
  • speed of mph
  • speed limit of mph
  • travel at mph

And then they asked people to estimate the speed of the two cars in mph.

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Examples

  • That thing must be going 80 mph!

  • Heavy rain and wind speeds up to 85 mph are to be expected.

  • We are at 30 MPH.

  • I had been going about 40 mph, and he had been sliding toward me faster than that.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • The cars that pass at 65 mph force my car to roll gently.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Landscape going by at 250 mph looks about the same as it does going past at 70.

    Academic text (2002)
  • The engines that power these monsters can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 8 seconds.

    Academic text (2013)
  • We're doing over 100 mph and we haven't used 1/10th of our power yet.

  • Louise looks at the speedometer touching 80 mph and lets her foot off the gas.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Noah's already up to 70 MPH, races through a yellow light, hangs a left.

    Fiction book (1995)

Synonyms

98 1.7

A measure of speed showing how many miles you travel in one hour

is the abbreviated form used in writing for that unit

Surface Forms

mph singular
mphs plural

Morphology

mph = m + p + h

This is an initialism ('m','p','h' = miles per hour); the letters themselves do not convey the meaning to learners unless they know the expansion.

Etymology

The word mph comes from the phrase miles per hour: miles is the distance, per means 'for each', and hour is the time. So mph simply shows how many miles are covered in one hour, which is why it measures speed.