litre
part of speech
noun (litre, litres; US spelling liter, liters)
meaning for a pupil
1) A litre is a unit for measuring liquids and the space inside things (volume). tree →
2) A litre has 1000 millilitres. tree →
3) A litre is also an amount of something that fills that much: a litre of milk. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths it is a unit of volume for liquids; 1 litre = 1000 millilitres; often a price or a rate per litre, for milk, juice or petrol. In science we measure litres with a measuring jug or cylinder. In everyday life: a big bottle of water often holds 1 litre; cars use litres of fuel in most countries (gallons in the USA).
examples
- The tank holds 40 litres. tree →
- Milk costs 1 dollar a litre. tree →
- She drinks 2 litres of water a day. tree →
- How many millilitres in 3 litres? tree →
- A litre has 1000 millilitres. tree →
- This jug holds half a litre of juice. tree →
- The bath held about 150 litres of water. tree →
- Petrol costs more per litre this year. tree →
- Measure the water in litres with a measuring jug. tree →
note
Short form: L or l (2 L). Spelling: «litre» in the UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, Ireland; «liter» in the USA. A litre of water weighs about 1 kilogram. A litre has 1000 millilitres. Maths: «per litre» is a rate. Trap: change ml to litres (÷ 1000) or litres to ml (× 1000) before adding.
In the corpora
- Aquarium tunnels are made of acrylic many centimetres thick, strong enough to hold back millions of litres of water.
- A thirsty camel can drink over 100 litres of water in about ten minutes, and its body loses very little water.
- A pelican's pouch scoops up about 10 litres of water, like a bucket, which it drains before swallowing the fish.
- A running tap can pour away several litres of water every minute.
- One kilogram is 1000 grams, and one litre is 1000 millilitres.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «litre» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.