Caliber

How to spell caliber

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce caliber

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does caliber mean?

1. nounThe level of quality, ability, or importance of a person or thing.
2. nounThe internal diameter of a gun barrel, or the diameter of a bullet or shell.

Caliber in a sentence

• The firm only hires engineers of the highest caliber.

• The rifle is chambered for a small caliber round.

• A project of this caliber demands an experienced manager.

• The museum displayed weapons of every caliber from the war.

Where does caliber come from?

Language of origin: French

This word reached English in the late 1500s from the French calibre, which French had taken from the Italian calibro, a term for the internal width of a gun barrel. The deeper roots are debated, but the most widely accepted account traces it to the Arabic qalib, meaning a mould, a form, or a shoemaker's last (the wooden foot-shaped block a shoe is built around). That Arabic word may itself go back to the Greek kalopodion, literally a wooden foot, combining kalon 'wood' and pous 'foot'. The link from a mould to a barrel makes good sense, since a barrel is in effect the mould that shapes and guides the shot. From the literal measurement of a bore, English quickly extended the word to mean the quality, weight, or degree of excellence of a person or thing. The American spelling ends in -er, while British and Canadian writers keep the French-looking -re ending in 'calibre', and that difference is exactly the spelling trap.

How the word is built

• calib- (bore or internal diameter, ultimately from a word meaning a mould or form)
• -er (noun ending)

British and American spelling

Caliber is the American spelling. British English spells it calibre.