METRIC

I. noun see: measure Date: 1760 a part of prosody that deals with ~al structure, a standard of measurement , a mathematical function that associates a real nonnegative number analogous to distance with each pair of elements in a set such that the number is zero only if the two elements are identical, the number is the same regardless of the order in which the two elements are taken, and the number associated with one pair of elements plus that associated with one member of the pair and a third element is equal to or greater than the number associated with the other member of the pair and the third element, II. adjective Etymology: French métrique, from mètre meter Date: 1864 of, relating to, or using the ~ system , ~ally adverb