sea mile
- noun
- Archaic
:
milla marina
- During their journey, they sailed over 100 sea miles across the open ocean.
Examples
-
Well, gentlemen, between ourselves and home are 27,000 sea miles, the Endeavour Straits and the Great Barrier Reef.
-
The boat traveled 50 sea miles before reaching the coastal town.
-
The map indicated that the nearest island was 25 sea miles away from their current position.
Synonyms
93
1.0
A measure of distance at sea equal to 1,852 meters used in navigation
11
4.4
A distance of exactly 1,852 meters used for measuring sea and air travel
2
8.1
A unit of distance used at sea equal to 1,852 meters
1
3.2
A unit of distance used in flying that equals 1,852 meters
An old British unit of length equal to 6,080 feet
An old measure of distance used at sea that equals 6,080 feet, about 1,853 metres
A unit of distance for ships and planes that equals 1,852 meters
A unit for measuring distance at sea or in the air equal to about 1852 meters
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound directly combines 'sea' (maritime) with 'mile' (unit of distance), so a learner who knows both words will readily infer it denotes a mile used at sea. Although the exact historical length (6,000 feet) is a specific detail learners cannot deduce, the basic meaning is fully compositional and cross-linguistically familiar (cf. 'nautical mile'), making it transparent.
Etymology
Sea mile comes from sailors naming a special 'mile' used at sea — they put sea before mile to show it was the ship's measure. So sea mile came to mean an old unit of about 6,000 feet, which was shorter than the modern mile used at sea.