metric
/ˈmɛt.ɹɪk/ adjective, noun, verb
Forms metrics metricking metricked
- adjective Of or relating to the metric system of measurement.
- adjective Of or relating to measurement by meters or by metrics.
- adjective (music) Of or relating to the meter of a piece of music.
- adjective (mathematics, physics) Of or relating to distance.
- noun A way to measure something; a means of deriving a quantitative measurement or approximation for otherwise qualitative phenomena (especially used in engineering). “What metric should be used for performance evaluation?”
- noun (mathematical analysis) A function which satisfies a particular set of formal conditions, created to generalize the notion of the distance between two points. Formally, a real-valued function d on M×M, where M is a set, is called a metric if (1) d(x,y)=0 if and only if x=y, (2) d(x,y)=d(y,x) for all pairs (x,y), and (3) d obeys the triangle inequality.
- noun (mathematics) A metric tensor.
- verb (transitive, aerospace, systems engineering) To measure or analyse statistical data concerning the quality or effectiveness of a process. “We need to metric the status of software documentation.”
Synonyms
measure distance function metric function metric unit system of measurement metrical measured
Etymology
From French métrique (1864), from New Latin metricus (“pertaining to the system based on the meter”), from metrum (“a meter”); see meter. By surface analysis, metre + -ic.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Relating to measurement; involving, or proceeding by, measurement.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the meter as a standard of measurement; of or pertaining to the decimal system of measurement of which a meter is the unit; as, the metric system; a metric measurement. Metric analysis (Chem.), analysis by volume; volumetric analysis.
Etymology [L. metricus, Gr. métrique. See Meter rhythm.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “metric”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details