last mile

English

WOTD – 31 December 2021

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌlɑːst ˈmaɪl/, /ˌlæst-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌlæst ˈmaɪl/
• Rhymes: -aɪl

Noun

last mile (plural last miles) (idiomatic, often attributively)

1. (logistics, transport) The final stage of delivery of goods, etc., from a distribution centre to the consumer, often involving greater effort or expense. [from mid 1970s]

   Synonym: last kilometre

   Coordinate terms: first mile, middle mile

2. (telecommunications) The portion of the infrastructure that carries communication signals from the main system to the end user's business or home, often involving greater expense to install and maintain, and lower transmission speeds.

   Synonym: last kilometre

   Coordinate terms: first mile, middle mile

   The problem getting to all these remote customers is still the last mile, no matter how far they live from the switch.

Translations

logistics: final stage of delivery

• Finnish: viimeinen kilometri
• Indonesian: mil terakhir
• Japanese: ラストワンマイル

telecommunication: part of infrastructure that connects the end user to the main system

• Azerbaijani: son mil
• Belarusian: апошняя міля (apóšnjaja milja)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 最後一公里 (zuìhòuyīgōnglǐ)

• Czech: poslední míle f
• Finnish: tilaajapää
• French: dernier kilomètre (fr) m
• German: letzte Meile f
• Italian: ultimo miglio (it) m
• Japanese: ラストワンマイル
• Polish: łącze abonenckie n
• Russian: последняя ми́ля f (poslednjaja mílja)
• Spanish: último kilómetro m
• Ukrainian: остання миля (ostannja mylja)

Further reading

• last mile on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• last mile (transportation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “last mile, n.” under “last, adv., adj., and n.⁴”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2021.
• “last mile, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Maillets, mistella