-metric Also -metrical, -metry, -metrics, -metrist, and -metrician.

Measurement.

[Greek metron, measure; -metrēs, measurer.]

Nouns in -metry denote procedures and systems that correspond to the names of instruments ending in -meter: calorimetry, dosimetry, interferometry, thermometry. Other words in this ending connected with measurement are geometry, symmetry (Greek sun-, with), and trigonometry (Greek trigōnos, three-cornered).

Nouns ending in -metrics (usually considered to be singular) are of topics of study concerned with measurement, as with econometrics, concerned with mathematical methods used to describe economic systems; and psychometrics, the science of measuring mental capacities and processes. Practitioners of these disciplines (and some whose names end in -metry) have names ending in -metrist (psychometrist) or -metrician (econometrician).

Nouns in -meter, -metry, and -metrics have corresponding adjectives in -metric (barometric, geometric, psychometric) or less commonly in -metrical (diametrical, symmetrical), sometimes both.

Visit Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words site for 2000+ articles on English!

Copyright © Michael Quinion 2008–. All rights reserved. Page last updated 23 September 2008.
Your comments and suggestions on the site are very welcome.