# Is there another term to use than "mileage" when discussing kilometers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295 "2017-03-29T16:07:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/21 "2017-03-29T20:15:19Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > While I agree totally with this, many people still calculate their mileage in miles. Well, people my age(ish) and older at least. It’s just too familiar a concept to abandon. > > And it reminds me that most Canadians (of a certain age) will use Fahrenheit to express swimming water temperatures: “The pool’s at 80! Come on over!” 80? What is this, a polar bear swim? I want my pool at 85 minimum. Turn the heater up! The metric/imperial thing is certainly both an age and what-are-you-measuring issue. My children, who are 12 and 11, obviously think of everything in metric- but not height and weight. That’s feet/inches and pounds; they’d never state their weight in kilograms or their height in centimeters any more than I would. Even in terms of the same thing being measured - as you use the example of, I’d think of a pool’s temperature in Fahrenheit. But the outside temperature I think of in Celsius. I am pretty sure 85 is warm, but I’m not sure, without converting, if that’s just warm, or hot, or holy crap it’s hot. I know 75 is just nice, not really warm, and 100 is stupid. As to mileage, wouldn’t you have to personally calculate that, though? No car dealer in Canada uses miles per gallon, or litre. It’d be a pain to bother doing the conversion. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/22 "2017-03-29T20:53:08Z")
That’s why I used the word calculate. 😉 I’m conversant in both, but it took a long time for me to familiarize myself with l/100 kms. Sent from my adequate mobile device using Tapatalk. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/23 "2017-03-29T22:02:32Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In French it’s _kilometrage_. If it was felt such a word was needed in English, the simplest course would just be to adopt the French. Not thinking particularly about motor vehicle fuel consumption (I don’t drive): for, in general, “number of kilometres spanned or covered”, I use “kilometrage”, as an English word. Am in the UK, where we use miles not kilometres; so I employ “kilometrage”, in respect of distances in “metric” countries. So do many of my compatriots, for this purpose – I don’t recall this having been, here, thought odd on our part. “Kilometrage” appears in the “Shorter Oxford Dictionary”, with no indication of there being anything strange about it. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/24 "2017-03-29T22:09:59Z")
It’s pronounced “ki-lo-met-RAZH”, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/25 "2017-03-29T22:24:07Z")
I am a little surprised that “klicks”, the military abbreviation for kilometres hasn’t caught on. Thus “litres per klick”, or " ever “klickage”. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/26 "2017-03-29T22:26:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Adopt them? Wouldn’t it be easier just to learn the language? Nah, I want the bread and croissants, too. I assume these skills will come with any French I adopt, right? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/27 "2017-03-29T22:58:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Why should they be? > > Do you get headaches if something has a western orientation? > > How about referring to a full-grown eagle as a bird? > > Or calling a bit of evidence of a crime a clue? > > Or thinking “He’s a nice person” as a compliment? > > Bottom line: The initial meaning of a word is often utterly irrelevant to its current meaning. “Mileage” means “gasoline consumption.” The fact that it’s based on “mile” is just a trivial fact. Myself, I get fits whenever someone refers to an MD as a “doctor”, or says that a building is “dilapidated” when it isn’t made out of stone. Also, the word “footage” has been used to refer to chronological lengths of video recording for so long that the “spatial length of film” meaning is pretty well lost to history. To get back to the spatial sense of the word, you really have to talk about areas, which can be measured in square footage. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/28 "2017-03-30T00:09:36Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > 80? What is this, a polar bear swim? I want my pool at 85 minimum. Turn the heater up! > > The metric/imperial thing is certainly both an age and what-are-you-measuring issue. My children, who are 12 and 11, obviously think of everything in metric- but not height and weight. That’s feet/inches and pounds; they’d never state their weight in kilograms or their height in centimeters any more than I would. Even in terms of the same thing being measured - as you use the example of, I’d think of a pool’s temperature in Fahrenheit. But the outside temperature I think of in Celsius. I am pretty sure 85 is warm, but I’m not sure, without converting, if that’s just warm, or hot, or holy crap it’s hot. I know 75 is just nice, not really warm, and 100 is stupid. > > As to mileage, wouldn’t you have to personally calculate that, though? No car dealer in Canada uses miles per gallon, or litre. It’d be a pain to bother doing the conversion. New Zealander here who was brought up in imperial measurements but NZ adopted metric in the '70s, I think, so my early adulthood. Unless prompted, I think of heights and weights exclusively in metres (or is that centimeters) and kilograms. I couldn’t even tell you what my weight is in stones/pounds or just pounds. Height is 170 cm, weight about 70 kg. Temperatures definitely in celsius, even sea or pool. I do know the sea was at 18 degrees just after Christmas when I was at the beach and I thought “No way am I swimming in that!” i did, a couple of days later when it was about 22. Mileage is still mileage, but measured in l/100km, not mpg or km per litre. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/29 "2017-03-30T00:46:27Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It’s pronounced “ki-lo-met-RAZH”, BTW. I say “kil-o-MET-rǝj” and will continue to do so, I’m afraid – and a pox on the damned Froggies. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/30 "2017-03-30T00:51:59Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The metric/imperial thing is certainly both an age and what-are-you-measuring issue. My children, who are 12 and 11, obviously think of everything in metric- but not height and weight… That lasted a long time in Aus too, but it’s almost gone now, even with old people. I imagine that doctors still have to deal with old people who know their weight in pounds, but even that is no longer so common that it gets called out in the medical literature. In Aus, it became illegal to sell or use scales that reported wieght in pounds/stones, which forced the issue for a while. Another long-term hold-out was bookshelves :). For whatever reason, bookshelf height was given in feet even long after the shelf witdth had converted to metric… ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/31 "2017-03-30T06:18:05Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > In France I believe they use litres per 100 km as a measure of fuel consumption. Also in Australia thats generally the stat quoted. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/32 "2017-03-30T06:39:00Z")
Even leaving the whole metric/imperial thing aside, “mileage” has a few different senses: - As a term for a measure of fuel consumption/fuel economy. This seems to be the dominant sense in AmE. - As a term for the aggregate distance a vehicle has travelled. This is the dominant sense in my HibE and I think in BrE and AuE. When a car dealer tells you a vehicle’s mileage, he’s not telling you about fuel consumption; he’s telling you the reading on the odometer. - As a term for the rate of reimbursement of travel expenses - a mileage allowance. This is particularly common in BrE. As already noted, the term has long transcended contexts that necesarily involve anything that could be measured in miles - “I’ve got a lot of mileage out of that story”, meaning that I have told it many times, and it is always well-received. This is obviously a metaphor based on the “mileage = aggregate distance travelled” sense. Given that no actual miles need be hurt in a text that employs the word “mileage”, it’s not difficult to see that “mileage” can be used, and will be understood, even in places where distances are conventionally measured in kilometres. A quick-and-dirty test (a Google search for “mileage site:.au” suggestes that “mileage” is in common use in Australia, mostly in the “odometer reading” and “rate of travel expenses” senses. I think the commonest terms for the fuel consumption sense are terms like “fuel consumption”, “fuel efficiency”, “fuel economy”. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/33 "2017-03-30T09:23:08Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In French it’s _kilometrage_. If it was felt such a word was needed in English, the simplest course would just be to adopt the French. I’d vote for just a simple _métrage_, scans more like mileage plus has that _accent aigu_ cool. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/34 "2017-03-30T09:25:13Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Are there more of these words? Unit of measurement + “age”. When did they stop being coined? We have footage and mileage as mentioned, also voltage (and even weirder words like “amperage” and “wattage”). I assume this construction mostly comes from French? I’ve heard “poundage” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/35 "2017-03-30T11:41:32Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > … > > - As a term for the aggregate distance a vehicle has travelled. This is the dominant sense in my HibE and I think in BrE and AuE. When a car dealer tells you a vehicle’s mileage, he’s not telling you about fuel consumption; he’s telling you the reading on the odometer. > … Fine post overall. And you do a nice job of clearly breaking out the various senses of the word. There are lots of nice partial comments upthread, but this collects them all into a neat whole. Ref the part I snipped above, I propose we adopt “odage” or “odomage” or even “odorage” as the universal units-independent term for accumulated travel distance. After all, what does an odo-meter measure other that odo’s? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/36 "2017-03-30T13:19:45Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > In Aus, it became illegal to sell or use scales that reported wieght in pounds/stones, which forced the issue for a while. I imagine that that would cause some First Amendment issues in the USA, but, really, what about digital scales? Every digital scale I’ve ever owned has been able to switch between kg and lbs, and sometimes even st. (When my Withings scale has a low battery, it will sometimes tell me my weight in stone!) Australian stuff comes out of the same factories in Shenzhen that our stuff does. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/37 "2017-03-30T13:37:56Z")
I think **Melbourne** is probably saying that it became illegal for merchants to continue to sell things in ounces and pounds, not that the scales themselves were illegal. We had the same issue in Canada after switching to metric; merchants were forbidden from selling produce in imperial units. After an outlash the government backed off and allowed both imperial and metric to be used together. We still see things advertized by the pound, because it’s 2.2 times cheaper than by the kilogram. I’m not kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/38 "2017-03-30T17:45:35Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Here’s​ the tape of footage I filmed. \ And when your computer program crashes can spits a printout of its memory in hexadecimal, that’s still called a _core dump_ and always will be! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/39 "2017-03-30T17:54:01Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I think **Melbourne** is probably saying that it became illegal for merchants to continue to sell things in ounces and pounds, not that the scales themselves were illegal. Not necessarily. American anecdote: I worked for a company that wrote cash register application software. We had a customer whose electronic scales (interfaced directly to the computer) reported ounces, but he needed that in grams. (The business was selling precious metals in small quantities.) He had to reconfigure his scale to report weights in grams. (It could be configured either way.) Problem was, the merchant was selling _other_ stuff too, that needed to be in ounces and pounds. Did he need to have two separate scales? I suggested the obvious: Have the cash register simply take the scale weight, in grams, and convert it to ounces (or maybe the other way around). Apparently, the mere suggestion of this was such a majorly forbidden faux pas, that simply mentioning it caused others in the room to blanch. It was made clear to me in _no uncertain terms_ that it _just isn’t done that way!_ ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295/40 "2017-03-30T19:12:07Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > That lasted a long time in Aus too, but it’s almost gone now, even with old people. I am quite certain the difference is simply that we’re next to the USA, and their habits spill over a bit. In general Canadians 40 and younger, and sometimes older, have adopted metric when it’s something you need to read. Anywhere you look the temperature is always in Celsius, so you start to think that way. How cold is it right now? It’s about 4 degrees. I don’t think it’s… whatever that is in Fahrenheit because if I look on my phone, or on the Weather Network, or whatever, it’ll say 4 degrees. Same with distance; every road sign is in kilometres and has been almost my whole life, so I think in terms of kilometers. Liquids at the grocery store are sold in litres and mililitres, so that’s how I think. But people aren’t labelled, so height and weight in metric hasn’t caught on. Not in English Canada, anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-another-term-to-use-than-mileage-when-discussing-kilometers/783295.md?page=3)