metric

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   based on the meter as a standard of measurement

   the metric system

2. 2
   noun

   a decimal unit of measurement of the metric system (based on meters and kilograms and seconds)

   convert all the measurements to metric units

3. 3
   adj

   Of or relating to the metric system of measurement.

   But the red planet has been a graveyard for Russian, European and American missions, including an embarrassing 1999 NASA fail caused when a computer, running on metric numbers, and engineers, dealing in nonmetric numbers, got their signals crossed.

4. 4
   noun

   A measure for something; a means of deriving a quantitative measurement or approximation for otherwise qualitative phenomena (especially used in engineering).

   What metric should be used for performance evaluation?

5. 5
   noun

   A function which satisfies a particular set of formal conditions, created to generalize the notion of the distance between two points. Formally, a real-valued function d on M×M, where M is a set, is called a metric if (1) d(x,y)=0 if and only if x=y, (2) d(x,y)=d(y,x) for all pairs (x,y), and (3) d obeys the triangle inequality.

   As we shall see, these metrics are constructed from a Green function.

6. 6
   verb

   To measure or analyse statistical data concerning the quality or effectiveness of a process.

   We need to metric the status of software documentation.

7. 7
   adj

   the rhythmic arrangement of syllables

8. 8
   noun

   a system of related measures that facilitates the quantification of some particular characteristic

Etymology

From French métrique (1864), from New Latin metricus (“pertaining to the system based on the meter”), from metrum (“a meter”); see meter. By surface analysis, metre + -ic.