Metrics

How to spell metrics

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce metrics

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does metrics mean?

1. nounThe standards or figures used to measure and assess performance, progress, or quality.

Metrics in a sentence

• The marketing team reviews its metrics at the end of every quarter.

• Sales metrics showed a steady rise across the region.

Where does metrics come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the ancient Greek metron, which simply meant 'a measure' or 'a standard of measurement'. From it the Greeks formed metrikos, meaning 'concerned with measuring', a term first applied to the measuring of verse and rhythm in poetry. Latin took this up as metricus, and the idea passed through French into English, where 'metric' described matters of measure and, later, the decimal system of weights based on the metre. The plural 'metrics' grew especially in modern business, science, and computing to mean the specific quantities tracked to gauge performance. The same metron root underlies a whole family of familiar words such as 'metre', 'thermometer', and 'geometry', and remembering that shared 'measure' sense keeps the spelling tidy: it is metr-, not 'metter-'.

How the word is built

• metr- (from Greek metron: measure)
• -ic (adjective/noun suffix: relating to)
• -s (plural)