Main Entry: ¹met·ric

Pronunciation: \ˈme-trik\

Function: noun

Etymology: Greek metrikē, from feminine of metrikos in meter, by measure, from metron measure — more at measure

Date: 1760

1 plural : a part of prosody that deals with metrical structure
2 : a standard of measurement <no metric exists that can be applied directly to happiness — Scientific Monthly>
3 : a mathematical function that associates a real nonnegative number analogous to distance with each pair of elements in a set such that the number is zero only if the two elements are identical, the number is the same regardless of the order in which the two elements are taken, and the number associated with one pair of elements plus that associated with one member of the pair and a third element is equal to or greater than the number associated with the other member of the pair and the third element