distance definition

English distance definition

Alternative forms

• distaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English distance, distaunce, destaunce, from Old French destance, from Latin distantia (“distance, remoteness, difference”), from distāns, present participle of distō (“I stand apart, I am separate, distant, or different”), from di-, dis- (“apart”) + stō (“I stand”). Compare Dutch afstand (“distance”, literally “off-stand, off-stance”), German Abstand.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪs.tɪns/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪs.təns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: (weak vowel merger) -ɪstəns

Noun

distance (countable and uncountable, plural distances)

1. (countable) The amount of space between two points, usually geographical points, usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.

   The distance to Petersborough is thirty miles.

   From Moscow, the distance is relatively short to Saint Petersburg, relatively long to Novosibirsk, but even greater to Vladivostok.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:

     Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

2. Length or interval of time.
   • 1718, Matthew Prior, Preface to a Collection of Poems

     ten years' distance between my writing the one and the other

   • 1795, John Playfair, Elements of Geometry

     the writings of Euclid at the distance of two thousand years

3. (countable, informal) The difference; the subjective measure between two quantities.

   We're narrowing the distance between the two versions of the bill.  The distance between the lowest and next gear on my bicycle is annoying.

4. Remoteness of place; a remote place.
   • 1819 June 23​, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Rip Van Winkle”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], OCLC 1090970992, page 71:

     As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance, hallooing, "Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!"

   • 1799, Thomas Campbell, The Pleasure of Hope

     'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, OCLC 79426475, Act I, scene v, page 1:

     [He] waits at distance till he hears from Cato.

5. Remoteness in succession or relation.

   the distance between a descendant and his ancestor

6. A space marked out in the last part of a racecourse.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], OCLC 228727523:

     the horse that ran the whole field out of distance

7. (uncountable, figuratively) The entire amount of progress to an objective.

   He had promised to perform this task, but did not go the distance.

8. (uncountable, figuratively) A withholding of intimacy; alienation; variance.

   The friendship did not survive the row: they kept each other at a distance.

   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Seditions and Troubles”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, OCLC 863521290:

     Setting them [factions] at distance, or at least distrust amongst themselves.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     On the part of Heaven, / Now alienated, distance and distaste.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

     In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. […] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.

9. The remoteness or reserve which respect requires; hence, respect; ceremoniousness.
   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour […]‎^[1], London: Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, published 1667, Act I, scene ii, page 4:

     though you ſee / The King is kind, I hope your modeſty / Will know, what diſtance to the Crown is due.

   • 1706, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preached in the Guild-Hall Chapel, September 28 1706

     ’Tis by respect and distance that authority is upheld.

10. The space measured back from the winning-post which a racehorse running in a heat must reach when the winner has covered the whole course, in order to run in the final heat.

Synonyms

• (remoteness): farness

Derived terms

Related terms

• distant

Translations

Verb

distance (third-person singular simple present distances, present participle distancing, simple past and past participle distanced)

1. (transitive) To move away (from) someone or something.

   He distanced himself from the comments made by some of his colleagues.

2. (transitive) To leave at a distance; to outpace, leave behind.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 71:

     Then the horse, with muscles strong as steel, distanced the sound.

3. (transitive) To lose interest in a specific issue.

Derived terms

• outdistance

Translations

Further reading

• distance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• distance in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• distance at OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• danciest

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Danish distance definition

Etymology

From French distance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /distanɡsə/, [d̥iˈsd̥ɑŋsə]

Noun

distance c (singular definite distancen, plural indefinite distancer)

1. distance
2. detachment

Declension

Further reading

• “distance” in Den Danske Ordbog

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Esperanto distance definition

Etymology

From distanco +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [diˈstant͡se]
• Rhymes: -ant͡se
• Hyphenation: di‧stan‧ce

Adverb

distance

1. To or at a great distance.

   rigardi pentraĵon distance.

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French distance definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis.tɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Latin distantia.

Noun

distance f (plural distances)

1. distance (literal physical distance)

   On se tient à distance de deux kilomètres l'un de l'autre.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. distance (metaphoric or figurative)
   • 2014, Jean-Claude Bernardon ,Résolution de conflits

     Votre langage doit vous permettre de maintenir une bonne distance de sécurité, être un peu plus poli et détaché que nécessaire est un avantage.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   Il convient de la tenir à une certaine distance.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Derived terms

Related terms

• distant

Etymology 2

Verb

distance

1. inflection of distancer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “distance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Latvian distance definition

Noun

distance f (5 declension)

1. distance
2. interval
3. railway division

Declension