square measure
- noun
- /skwɛr ˈmɛʒər/
- They plan to build a new shopping center that will take up 5 square miles of land.
Examples
-
- Situated in Walworth County, the city of Elkhorn is comprised of nearly eight square miles of land and has a population of just over 10,000 people.
-
Thousands and thousands of square miles where no white man has ever been and even the natives are afraid to go.
-
About thirty thousand square miles of desert mountains and jungle
-
That's thirty thousand square miles of desert, mountain and jungle
-
Low-flying aircraft spraying PL-45... ...can cover 100 square miles in two hours.
-
That's almost thirty thousand square miles of jungles and deserts
-
The park covers an area of 50 square miles, providing plenty of space for outdoor activities.
-
Our city is about 30 square miles in size, making it one of the largest in the region.
Synonyms
A fixed amount used as a standard to measure length, weight, or volume
A standard measure of the size of a flat area, like square meters
A standard amount used to measure things like length or weight
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase 'square measure' is directly compositional: 'square' (a geometric square) + 'measure' (a unit or quantity) yields a measurement based on squares (i.e., area units like square meter). This is a productive, cross-linguistically common naming pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can reliably infer the meaning.
Etymology
Square measure comes from the simple idea of measuring area by counting small equal squares on a grid. Each little square is a unit of measure, so the phrase now means a unit used 'to measure area'.