kilo-

See also: Appendix:Variations of "kilo"

English

Etymology

From French, kilo- irregularly derived from Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi, “one thousand”). The etymologically "correct" form would be chili- or chilo-, resulting in forms such as chiliasme (“chiliasm”) or chilopode (“centipede”); but the French, when creating the prefix, had to avoid a possible (standard) pronunciation of chi as /ʃi/, too close to the vulgar verb chier.

Prefix

SI prefix
k	Previous:	hecto-
k	Next:	mega-

kilo-

In the International System of Units and other metric systems of units, multiplying the unit to which it is attached by 1,000. Symbol: k
(computing) Multiplying the unit to which it is attached by 2¹⁰ (1024)

Usage notes

The usage of kilo as a 1024x multiplier in computing is considered obsolete in some groups, but others continue to use it this way.[1] See kibi-.

Translations

prefix

Albanian: kilo-
Basque: kilo- (eu)
Belarusian: кіла- (kila-)
Bulgarian: кило- (kilo-)
Catalan: quilo- (ca), kilo- (ca)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 千- (yue) (cin¹)

Hakka: 千- (chhiên-)

Hokkien: 千- (zh-min-nan) (chhian-)

Mandarin: 千- (zh) (qiān-)
Czech: kilo- (cs)
Danish: kilo- (da)
Dutch: kilo- (nl)
Esperanto: kilo-
Estonian: kilo- (et)
Finnish: kilo- (fi)
French: kilo- (fr)
Galician: quilo- (gl)
German: kilo- (de)
Greek: χιλιό- (el) (chilió-), χιλιο- (el) (chilio-)
Hindi: सहस्र- (sahasra-)
Hungarian: kilo- (hu)
Icelandic: kíló-
Ido: kilo-
Indonesian: kilo-
Ingrian: kilo-
Irish: cilea-
Italian: chilo- (it), kilo- (it)
Japanese: キロ- (kiro-)
Korean: 킬로 (killo-)
Latvian: kilo-
Lithuanian: kilo-
Malagasy: kilao-
Malay: kilo- (ms)
Marathi: सहस्र- (sahasra-)
Nepali: सहस्र- (sahasra-)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: kilo- (no)

Nynorsk: kilo-
Polish: kilo- (pl)
Portuguese: quilo- (pt), kilo-
Romanian: kilo- (ro)
Russian: кило- (ru) (kilo-)
Serbo-Croatian: kilo-
Slovak: kilo-
Slovene: kilo-
Spanish: kilo- (es), quilo-
Swedish: kilo- (sv)
Tagalog: libo-
Thai: กิโล- (gì-loo)
Turkish: kilo-
Ukrainian: кіло- (kilo-)

Anagrams

Ilok, Loki

Albanian

Prefix

kilo-

kilo-

Derived terms

Albanian terms prefixed with kilo-

Basque

Prefix

kilo-

kilo-

Derived terms

Basque terms prefixed with kilo-

Catalan

Alternative forms

quilo-

Etymology

Borrowed from French kilo-, from Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi, “thousand”).

Prefix

kilo-

kilo- (SI prefix expressing 10³ of the base unit)

Usage notes

The letter k is not normally used in Catalan. Instead, Catalan orthography calls for using the qu digraph to represent the /k/ sound before an e or an i. Therefor, when the metric system was introduced into Catalan, the prefix kilo- was originally spelled quilo-. With the advent of k as a standard international abbreviation, usage of kilo- has become not only acceptable, but also more common than the traditional spelling. However, traditionalists still insist upon the use of quilo-.