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metre or meter?

edited November 2006 in - WM and WN

Comments

  • Richard Bell's article on page 30 of WM included a ruling on metre versus meter.  According to my old Collins dictionary, either can be used when describing poetry. What do the rest of you think?
  • Definitely 'metre' although in words such as 'pentameter' and 'tetrameter' it's 'er' rather than 're'.
  • My vote goes with metre.
  • My understanding is that a meter is an apparatus for measuring (eg gas meter), whereas a metre is a metric unit of length measurement defined in a 1963 Act of Parliament about metrification which states 'One yard = 0.9144 metre'.
  • My old-ish Oxford dictionary agrees with montholon, although I'd always use 'metre'.
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