mileage

also n.

1. Total length, extent, or distance measured or expressed in miles.
2. Total miles covered or traveled in a given time.
3. The amount of service, use, or wear estimated by miles used or traveled: This tire will give very good mileage.
4. The number of miles traveled by a motor vehicle on a given quantity of fuel.
5. 1. An allowance for travel expenses established at a specified rate per mile.
   2. Expense per mile, as for the use of a car.
6. Informal. The amount of service something has yielded or may yield in the future; usefulness: a tape player that still has a lot of mileage left.

Origin: 1753

It was part of Ben Franklin's contribution to the idea of a Union (1754) of the colonies. How could members of a united colonial council be persuaded to travel vast distances for meetings? How could they be fairly compensated for traveling different distances? Franklin's down-to-earth solution was mileage, payment of a certain amount per mile of travel. The idea must have been in his head for at least a year when in 1754 Franklin wrote a list of "Short hints towards a scheme for uniting the Northern Colonies" and included "Members Pay: -- Shillings sterling per Diem during their sitting and milage for Travelling expences."

More than twenty years later, when we declared our independence, we had not forgotten the mileage, as in a 1776 report that "the militia were promised their mileage and billeting-money."

Subsequently, in the new United States, Congress was happy to award itself mileage. In 1797 there was "a bill for allowing full mileage to members of the Senate and House of Representatives."

At first mileage seems to have been limited to legislatures and the military, but it soon became a practice in private business as well. Transportation has changed from those ship-and-horseback days, but we still measure our distances in miles and compensate ourselves with mileage.

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 3 meanings:

Meaning #1: distance measured in miles
  Synonym: milage

Meaning #2: the ratio of the number of miles traveled to the number of gallons of gasoline burned
  Synonyms: fuel consumption, miles per gallon

Meaning #3: a travel allowance at a given rate per mile traveled

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - afstand, vejlængde, antal miles

Nederlands (Dutch)
kilometervergoeding, aantal mijlen (gereisd etc.), voordeel, winst, mijlen per eenheid brandstof (prestatie van auto)

Français (French)
n. - nombre de miles, kilométrage, distance, consommation, (fig) utilisation (un vêtement), exploitation, indemnité kilométrique

Deutsch (German)
n. - Meilenzahl, Kilometergeld

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (διανυθείσα) απόσταση ή μήκος σε μίλια, κατανάλωση καυσίμων (οχήματος κ.λπ.) σε σχέση προς τη διανυόμενη απόσταση, (καθομ.) πλεονέκτημα, κέρδος, ωφέλεια

Italiano (Italian)
indennità per chilometro, distanza in miglia, chilometraggio

Português (Portuguese)
n. - milhagem (f)

Русский (Russian)
расстояние в милях, пробег автомобиля в милях, деньги на проезд, пройденный путь

Español (Spanish)
n. - distancia en millas, recorrido en millas, millaje

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - antal (körda) miles, milkostnad

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
英里数, 运费

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 英里數, 運費

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 누적 마일 수

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 総マイル数, 走行マイル数, 利益

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مسافه ميليه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מספר המיילים, מרחק במיילים, מרחק במיילים ליחידת-דלק, תועלת, רווח, יתרון (מדוברת)‬

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