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“caliber”
1. Someone's mental ability, intelligence, or character: The student's caliber of learning was exceptionally outstanding.
2. The inner diameter of a pipe or a cylinder; especially the barrel of a firearm: A caliber is the measurement of the bore of a gun; usually, expressed in hundredths or thousandths of an inch and typically written as a decimal fraction; such as, .22 or .38 caliber for the size of a bullet.
3. The external size of a projectile: The bullets that Tom used when he was target shooting were .22 calibers or approximately 0.22 of an inch or 5.6 millimeters.
4. In medicine, the broadness or size of any orifice, canal, or tube in the body: The proper caliber of a blood vessel is its diameter and so it is very important for normal blood pressure.
5. Etymology: from Greek kalapous via French calibre, "social standing or importance"; or the oldest literal meaning in English was "the inside diameter of a gun barrel, or a mold for casting bullets".
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2. The inner diameter of a pipe or a cylinder; especially the barrel of a firearm: A caliber is the measurement of the bore of a gun; usually, expressed in hundredths or thousandths of an inch and typically written as a decimal fraction; such as, .22 or .38 caliber for the size of a bullet.
3. The external size of a projectile: The bullets that Tom used when he was target shooting were .22 calibers or approximately 0.22 of an inch or 5.6 millimeters.
4. In medicine, the broadness or size of any orifice, canal, or tube in the body: The proper caliber of a blood vessel is its diameter and so it is very important for normal blood pressure.
5. Etymology: from Greek kalapous via French calibre, "social standing or importance"; or the oldest literal meaning in English was "the inside diameter of a gun barrel, or a mold for casting bullets".
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This entry is located in the following unit:
calibra-, calibr-, caliber-
(page 1)
(French: degree of merit or importance; diameter of a bullet, cannon-ball, etc.; instrument for measuring the thickness, width, or distance through the center of a tube)
Word Entries at Get Words:
“caliber”
caliber, calibre
1. The amount of ability, intelligence, or character of a person: "We rarely get such a high caliber teacher in our school."
3. The external diameter of a projectile; such as, a bullet or a shell which is fired from a particular weapon.
4. Etymology: "degree of merit or importance", is from Middle French calibre in the late 15th century; apparently it ultimately came from Arabic qalib, "a mold for casting".
"We need to improve the caliber of our schools."
2. The internal diameter of a pipe, cylinder, or the barrel of a firearm; such as, a rifle, shotgun, or pistol.3. The external diameter of a projectile; such as, a bullet or a shell which is fired from a particular weapon.
4. Etymology: "degree of merit or importance", is from Middle French calibre in the late 15th century; apparently it ultimately came from Arabic qalib, "a mold for casting".
Arabic also used the word in the sense of "mold for casting bullets"; which is the original literal meaning in English.
This entry is located in the following unit:
English Words from Arabic origins
(page 2)