What Is a Meter?
Definition
Meter (Metre): The SI base unit of length, symbol m. It is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. British English spells it metre.
The meter (metre, symbol m) is the SI base unit of length. Since 1983 it has been the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. The centimeter and kilometer are formed from it with prefixes, and the inch, foot, yard and mile are defined from it exactly. That makes it the common reference for length conversions.
Where it appears in the formulas
1 m = 100 cm = 1,000 mm and 1 km = 1,000 m. The length converter stores the size of every unit in meters and uses factor = meters in one from unit ÷ meters in one to unit. For example, 1 meter is about 3.2808 feet, 39.3701 inches and 1.0936 yards.
Meter or metre
American English writes meter and British English writes metre. Both spellings name the same unit.