Meaning & use
dekameter
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountabletechnicalspecialist
A metric unit of length equal to ten meters.
Grammar: The symbol is dam; British spelling is decametre or dekametre.
Patterns
- ten meters is one dekameter
- measured in dekameters
One dekameter is the same as ten meters.
The two poles are placed exactly a dekameter apart.
The chart gives distances in dekameters rather than kilometers.
Word forms
| plural | dekameters |
|---|
Common combinations
- square dekameter
- A square dekameter equals one hundred square meters.
- cubic dekameter
- The reservoir holds fifty cubic dekameters of water.
- in dekameters
- The length is given in dekameters.
- one dekameter
- One dekameter is about thirty-three feet.
Synonyms and how they differ
- decametre
- Decametre is the British spelling and means exactly the same thing.
- ten meters
- Ten meters is the everyday way to say it, since dekameter is rarely used outside textbooks.
Word family
Commonly confused: dekameter or decimeter? dekameter or decameter?
dekameter vs decimeter
A decimeter is one tenth of a meter, whereas a dekameter is ten meters, so the two differ by a factor of one hundred.
dekameter vs decameter
Decameter is an alternative spelling of dekameter with the same meaning.
Practice
A fence that is five dekameters long measures how many meters?
Choose one answer.
One dekameter equals ten meters, so five dekameters equal fifty meters. Five hundred would be five hectometers.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dekameter”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.