Centimetre

A centimetre (international spelling) or centimeter (American spelling) (SI symbol cm) is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one hundredth of a metre, centi being the SI prefix for a factor of 1/100. Equivalently, there are 100 centimetres in 1 metre. The centimetre was the base unit of length in the now deprecated centimetre–gram–second (CGS) system of units.

Not to be confused with Millimetre.

centimetre
A carpenter's ruler with centimetre divisions
General information
Unit systemSI
Unit oflength
Symbolcm
Conversions
1 cm in ...... is equal to ...
   millimetres   10 mm
   imperial & US system   ~0.3937 in
Look up centimetre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
For broader coverage of this topic, see metre.

Though for many physical quantities, SI prefixes for factors of 103—like milli- and kilo-—are often preferred by technicians, the centimetre remains a practical unit of length for many everyday measurements; for instance, human height is commonly measured in centimetres. A centimetre is approximately the width of the fingernail of an average adult person.

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