pedometer

English

Etymology

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, from French pédomètre, from pedi-, combining form for Latin pēs (“foot”), plus -ometer, from Greek. In French now the word is podomètre, and similar in other Romance languages and in Greek (ποδόμετρο (podómetro)). By surface analysis, pedo- (“foot”) +‎ -meter = pedo- + -ometer.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɪˈdɑmətɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɪˈdɒmətə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

pedometer (plural pedometers)

1. A device, often electronic, that measures the number of steps taken, and thus estimates the distance walked.

   He thought that buying a pedometer would spur him on to exercise.

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ped- (0 c, 66 e)

Translations

device

• Bulgarian: крачкомер m (kračkomer)
• Catalan: podòmetre m, pedòmetre m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 計步器 / 计步器 (zh) (jìbùqì)

• Czech: krokoměr (cs) m, pedometr m
• Dutch: stappenteller (nl) m
• Finnish: askelmittari (fi)
• French: podomètre (fr) m
• Galician: podómetro (gl) m, contapasos m
• German: Schrittzähler (de) m
• Icelandic: skrefamælir m, skrefmælir m, skrefateljari m
• Italian: pedometro m, contapassi m, passimetro m, podometro (it) m
• Japanese: 歩数計 (ja) (ほうすうけい, hosūkei), 万歩計 (ja) (まんぽけい, manpokei), 計歩器 (けいほき, keihoki), ペドメーター (pedomētā)
• Korean: 보수계(步數計) (bosugye), 보측계(步測計) (bocheukgye), 보도계(步度計) (bodogye), 만보계(萬步計) (ko) (manbogye), 기보기(記步器) (gibogi), 측보기(測步器) (cheukbogi), 계보기(計步器) (gyebogi), 만보기(萬步機) (ko) (manbogi), 페도미터 (pedomiteo)
• Malagasy: pedômetra
• Malay: pedometer
• Polish: krokomierz (pl) m
• Portuguese: podómetro, pedómetro m (Portugal); podômetro (pt) m, pedômetro m (Brazil)
• Russian: шагоме́р (ru) m (šagomér), педо́метр (ru) m (pedómetr)
• Spanish: podómetro m, odómetro (es) m, cuentapasos m
• Swedish: stegräknare (sv) c pl

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “pedometer”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• pedometre