distance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The amount of space between two places or points.

   The distance from New York to Chicago is about 700 miles.

2. 2
   noun

   A faraway place or point that you can see.

   I could see the mountains in the distance.

3. 3
   noun

   A feeling of being emotionally separate or unfriendly.

   There was a growing distance between the two old friends.

4. 4
   verb

   To keep yourself separate or apart from someone or something.

   The company tried to distance itself from the scandal.

From Middle English distance, distaunce, destance (“disagreement, dispute; discrimination; armed conflict; hostility; trouble; space between two points; time interval”), from Anglo-Norman distance, distaunce, destance, Middle French distance, and Old French destance, destaunce, distaunce (“debate; difference, distinction; discord, quarrel; dispute; space between two points; time interval”) (modern French distance), and directly from their etymon Latin distantia (“difference, diversity; distance, remoteness; space between two points”) (whence also Late Latin distantia (“disagreement; discrepanc…

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