Litre

The litre or liter (<a href="/facts/American_English/sdAfgPgM">American spelling</a>) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a <a href="/facts/Metric_units/uf8Lbdel">metric unit</a> of <a href="/facts/Volume/aeAXCBUd">volume</a>. It is equal to 1 cubic <a href="/facts/Decimetre/Ww43QljM">decimetre</a> (dm3), 1000 <a href="/facts/Cubic_centimetre/B8X0UHDI">cubic centimetres</a> (cm3) or 0.001 <a href="/facts/Cubic_metre/GPILKCtm">cubic metres</a> (m3). A cubic decimetre (or litre) occupies a volume of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm (see figure) and is thus equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre.
The original French <a href="/facts/Metric_system/to24H0YK">metric system</a> used the litre as a <a href="/facts/SI_base_unit/M7PsTWg4">base unit</a>. The word litre is derived from an older French unit, the <a href="/facts/Units_of_measurement_in_France_before_the_French_Revolution/dWe1rosd">litron</a>, whose name came from Byzantine <a href="/facts/Greek_language/pzDd6eIz">Greek</a>—where it was a unit of weight, not volume—via Late Medieval Latin, and which equalled approximately 0.831 litres. The litre was also used in several subsequent versions of the metric system and is accepted for use with the SI, despite it not being an <a href="/facts/International_System_of_Units/S7YLglNz">SI unit</a>. The SI unit of volume is the <a href="/facts/Cubic_metre/GPILKCtm">cubic metre</a> (m3). The spelling used by the <a href="/facts/International_Bureau_of_Weights_and_Measures/tPEu4X0s">International Bureau of Weights and Measures</a> is "litre", a spelling which is shared by most English-speaking countries. The spelling "liter" is predominantly used in <a href="/facts/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences/YEtRtJrV">American English</a>.
One litre of liquid water has a <a href="/facts/Mass/HHdc8XmF">mass</a> of almost exactly one <a href="/facts/Kilogram/lU2zbPk8">kilogram</a>, because the kilogram was originally defined in 1795 as the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at the temperature of melting ice (0 °C). Subsequent redefinitions of the metre and kilogram mean that this relationship is no longer exact.

Litre open-in-new

Litre