square mile
84
1.9
- noun
:
milla cuadrada
- Surprising Singapore, an island state of 240 square miles, offers an abundance of attractions for international visitors.
- cover square miles
- occupy square miles
- encompass square miles
If you look at it in an aerial map, there's this little ballpark in the center and then just probably a square mile of parking surrounding it, which is hell to walk through.
- If you look at it in an aerial map, there's this little ballpark in the center and then just probably a square mile of parking surrounding it, which is hell to walk through.
- Then of same one square mile on land of a forest of what's called green carbon credits.
Examples
-
Fifteen million people live in the bay's 64,000 square mile watershed, which includes Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond.
Academic text (1999) -
At five thousand feet, a pilot is looking at almost four hundred square miles of ground.
Fiction book (1991) -
Your target is inside an area of five square miles.
-
It's a couple of square miles at least, no one around.
-
What does it take to cover sixty square miles of New Mexico desert with water?
Academic text (1993) -
The school district covers a 512 square mile region with minimal public transportation.
Academic text (2013) -
The park was to protect some 5,000 square miles of marine and coastal environments and wildlife.
Academic text (1990) -
The company currently ranches about 60 square miles of land, half of which is leased from the government.
Academic text (1994) -
Saskatchewan has created Grasslands National Park, eventually to encompass 350 square miles but already open to visitors.
Academic text (1999) -
The national park covers an area of over fifty square miles.
How Big
84
1.9
- US
15
2.6
- US
10
1.0
- UK
3
1.8
- US
133
1.4
- US
22
1.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a unit of area equal to a square with sides of one mile' is directly compositional from 'square' (a geometric shape with equal sides) and 'mile' (a unit of length). This pattern of forming area units (e.g., square metre/kilometre) is common in English and other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Square mile comes from a simple picture: a square whose sides are each one mile long, and the space inside that square is what we measure. That's why it means 'a unit of area'.