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# km

«km» in Mova's school dictionary: **the short way to write kilometre, a unit for long distances** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

abbreviation (km, short for kilometre/kilometer); also said «k» or «klicks» (casual)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Km is the short way to write kilometre, a unit for long distances. 1 km is 1000 metres. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#m1)

2) Km/h or km per hour is a unit of speed: how many kilometres something goes in one hour. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#m2)

3) (casual, Australia, NZ, Canada) A «k» or «kay» is a kilometre in speech: «it's 5k to town», «a 10k run». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#m3)

4) (slang, military) A «klick» is a kilometre. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#m4)

5) (formal) In official writing km is often spelled out: «a distance of five kilometres». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#m5)

6) In some book references, KM is a short way of writing the title of Grimm's collection of German fairy tales. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#m6)

### sense in the lessons

In maths, a unit of distance; with «per hour» a speed (distance = speed × time). In science and geography, distances between towns and on maps are given in km. In everyday life and safety: road signs, speed limits (in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland in km/h; in the USA and UK in miles). In sport: 5k and 10k fun runs. In casual talk the unit is often dropped («it's like 3 from here»). In the exam voice: «a distance of 3 kilometres is traversed». Phrases: «km away», «km per hour», «km/h», «a 5k», «k's» (Australia).

### examples

- The school is 3 km away. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x1)
- He drives 60 km an hour. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x2)
- She walked 5 km on Monday and 4 km on Tuesday. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x3)
- How many metres are in 2 km? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x4)
- The speed limit near the school is 40 km/h. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x5)
- The marathon is about 42 km long. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x6)
- The next town is 15 km away. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x7)
- A brisk walk covers about 5 km in an hour. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x8)
- ran a 5k this arvo, legs are dead (casual, Australia) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x9)
- it's like 3 k's to the beach, we walking or what (casual) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x10)
- 2 km?? in this heat? you're having a laugh (rough) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x11)
- A cyclist traverses a distance of 18 km at a uniform speed of 12 km/h; determine the duration of the journey. (formal exam) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/#x12)

### note

Write km with no s and no dot: 5 km, not 5 kms. Read it as «kilometres». British spelling kilometre, American kilometer. A unit; «km per hour» is a speed (distance = speed × time). Trap: change km and m to the same unit before adding. A mile is longer than a km (about 1.6 km). Casual «5k» in running means 5 km, but «5k» about money means 5000 dollars or pounds — read what it counts. Trap: in casual talk the unit may be left out; it is still km if the people use km.

### In the corpora

- [A coyote can run at about 65 km per hour, and coyotes are among the real predators of roadrunners.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/5-the-desert/17/)
- [The Antarctic ice sheet is over 4 km thick in places and holds about 70 per cent of the world's fresh water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/7-antarctica/13/)
- [The Great Barrier Reef off Australia is about 2,300 km long and is the largest structure built by living things.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/9-coral-reefs-rockpools-and-the-seashore/8/)
- [A real roadrunner can run at about 30 km per hour, but a real coyote can run about twice as fast.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/94-parrots-flamingos-and-the-bird-of-prey-show/17/)
- [The Earth is about 40,000 km around the equator, and the Greek scholar Eratosthenes estimated this size quite well around 240 BC.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/1-maps-and-scale/14/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «km» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/km/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.