Meaning & use
metric
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebusiness
A number or measure used to track how well something is performing.
Grammar: Countable and common in business: key metrics.
Patterns
- a metric for something
- metrics of something
Customer satisfaction is our main metric for success.
The team tracks several metrics, including sales and response time.
Page views are a poor metric of quality.
adjectivenot comparable
Using the system of measurement based on meters, grams and liters.
Grammar: Goes before a noun or after a verb: the metric system, the recipe is metric.
Patterns
- metric system
- metric units
Most countries use the metric system for daily measurements.
The recipe lists metric units like grams and milliliters.
The road signs are in metric, so distances are in kilometers.
nouncountablemathematics
In mathematics, a rule that gives the distance between any two points in a space.
Grammar: Technical sense, often in a metric space.
Patterns
- a metric on something
The mathematician defined a new metric on the set of points.
A distance metric tells how far apart two data points are.
In a metric space, the triangle inequality holds.
Word forms
| plural | metrics |
|---|
Common combinations
- key metric
- Revenue is the key metric for the board.
- performance metric
- The school publishes a performance metric each term.
- metric system
- Americans still resist the metric system.
- track a metric
- We track this metric every week.
- metric ton
- The ship carries ten thousand metric tons of grain.
Synonyms and how they differ
- measure
- Measure is a general word for a standard or size, while metric is a specific number used to judge performance.
- indicator
- Indicator is a sign that shows a trend, whereas a metric is something directly measured.
- benchmark
- Benchmark is a standard used for comparison, but a metric is the thing you measure.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: metric or meter?
metric vs meter
Meter is a unit of length or an instrument, while metric describes the system or a measure of performance.
Practice
The manager said that customer retention was the most important ___ for the project.
Choose one answer.
A metric is a measure used to judge performance. Method is a way of doing something, and meter is a unit of length.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “metric”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.