nautical mile

noun

: any of various units of distance used for sea and air navigation based on the length of a minute of arc of a great circle of the earth and differing because the earth is not a perfect sphere: such as

a

: a British unit equal to 6080 feet (1853.2 meters)

b

: an international unit equal to exactly 1852 meters (6076.115 feet or 1.15 statute miles) used officially in the U.S. since July 1, 1954

Examples of nautical mile in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Castelion says Blackbeard can exceed Mach 5 and strike targets up to 500 nautical miles away. — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 26 Aug. 2026

An unidentified projectile struck and disabled an oil tanker about nine nautical miles northeast of Oman’s Ash Shishah, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported. — Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN Money, 25 Aug. 2026

The incident took place 63 nautical miles west of the Saudi city of Yanbu, the agency reported. — August 24, CBS News, 24 Aug. 2026

The attacks have occurred increasingly far from Somalia’s coastline, including the hijacking of the Eureka while anchored off Yemen and the Asana about 65 nautical miles southwest of Al-Mukalla. — Omar Faruk, Los Angeles Times, 22 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1830, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for nautical mile

• epicondyle
• geotextile
• nucleophile
• aisle
• bile
• chyle
• file
• guile
• heil
• isle
• kyle
• pile

Kids Definition

nautical mile

noun

: any of various units of distance used for sea and air navigation equal to about 6076 feet (1852 meters)