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

The vessels were struck in separate attacks approximately 70 nautical miles (around 80 miles) off the Saudi coast, maritime risk consultancy Marisks said Thursday. — Billy Stockwell, CNN Money, 23 July 2026

All the research Matthews' group had conducted, along with weather data from the time of the crash, was synthesized to develop a map of the most likely location and a search area of 10 square nautical miles. — Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 22 July 2026

All the research Matthews' group had done, combined with weather data from the time of the crash, was synthesized to create a map of the most likely location and a search area of 10 square nautical miles. — ABC News, 21 July 2026

The jet has a range of about 5,000 nautical miles (5,750 miles). — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 21 July 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)