distance

English

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distance

Wikipedia

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. 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:

     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. (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, 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 Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, 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 Sare, , →OCLC:

     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:

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

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

     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:

     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 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. , London: J M for H Herringman , published 1667, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 4:

     though you ſee / The King is kind, I hope your modeſty / VVill knovv, what diſtance to the Crovvn 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, also reflexive) To move away (from) someone or something.

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

   • 2023 November 1, Philip Haigh, “TPE must choose the right route to a brighter future”, in RAIL, number 995, page 57:

     But Gisby distances himself from calling TPE an inter-city operator.

2. (transitive) To leave at a distance; to outpace, leave behind.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “distance”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “distance”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• danciest

Danish

Etymology

From French distance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /distanɡsə/,

Noun

distance c (singular definite distancen, plural indefinite distancer)

1. distance
2. detachment

Declension

Further reading

• “distance” in Den Danske Ordbog

Esperanto

Etymology

From distanco +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

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

Adverb

distance

1. To or at a great distance.

   rigardi pentraĵon distance.

French

Pronunciation

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

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed 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.

   We stand at a distance of two kilometers from each other.

2. distance (metaphoric or figurative)

   Il convient de la tenir à une certaine distance.

   It's suitable to maintain a certain distance.

   • 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.

     Your language must allow you to maintain a good safe distance, to be a little more polite and detached than necessary is an advantage.

Derived terms

Related terms

• distant

Descendants

• → Russian: диста́нция (distáncija)
  • → Georgian: დისტანცია (disṭancia)
  • → Ukrainian: диста́нція (dystáncija)

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 , 2012.

Latvian

Noun

distance f (5 declension)

1. distance
2. interval
3. railway division

Declension