A nautical mile is a unit of measurement used at sea. It is equal to 1852 metres.
nautical mile in British English
noun
1. Also called: international nautical mile, air mile
a unit of length, used esp in navigation, equivalent to the average length of a minute of latitude, and corresponding to a latitude of 45°, i.e. 1852 m (6076.12 ft)
2.
a former British unit of length equal to 1853.18 m (6080 ft), which was replaced by the international nautical mile in 1970
Former name: geographical mile. Compare sea mile
nautical mile in American English
any of various units of distance for sea and air navigation: in the U.S. since 1959, an international unit of length, equal to oneminute of arc of a great circle of the earth or 6,076.12 feet or 1.1508 miles (1,852 meters or 1.852 kilometers)
abbrev. NM
Examples of 'nautical mile' in a sentence
nautical mile
Fifteen nautical miles is 15 minutes of latitude.
Christianity Today (2000)
A minute is a nautical mile, the measurable fragment of an arc.
Oxenhorn, Harvey Tuning the Rig: A Journey to the Arctic (1990)
The vessel is trapped about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart.