What does centilitre mean?
A centilitre is a metric unit of volume equal to one hundredth of a litre, or ten millilitres. The term combines the prefix 'centi-', meaning one hundredth, with 'litre', the base metric unit of volume. Although it belongs to the same family as more familiar measures such as the millilitre and decilitre, the centilitre occupies a narrow niche in everyday usage: it appears most often on European wine, beer, and spirits labels, where bottle capacities such as 70 cl are conventionally expressed in centilitres, and occasionally in cooking measurements. British English spells the word 'centilitre', while American English prefers 'centiliter'. In technical and scientific writing the millilitre has largely displaced it, since smaller increments allow greater precision. For general readers, recognising the centilitre is useful mainly for interpreting drink packaging and continental recipes.
nounA metric unit of volume equal to one hundredth of a litre, or ten millilitres.
- A unit of volume equal to one hundredth of a litre (10 millilitres), used chiefly in measurements on drink labels and in some recipes.
"The recipe called for five centilitres of olive oil."
"The bartender measured out two centilitres of vermouth."
"A standard bottle of whisky contains 70 centilitres."
Takes a regular '-s' plural; the singular is used after the numeral 'one'. The abbreviation 'cl' is invariable.
"Add three centilitres of lemon juice to the mixture."
Despite being an official SI-accepted unit, the centilitre is so rarely used in everyday English that most people meet it only on European wine and spirits labels — where 70 cl is a standard bottle size.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of centilitre
The word 'centilitre' was formed in French in the wake of the late eighteenth-century introduction of the metric system, combining the Latin-derived prefix 'centi-' (from Latin 'centum', meaning hundred) with 'litre', itself borrowed from French 'litre', ultimately from Greek 'litra' via medieval Latin. It entered English during the nineteenth century alongside other metric terms such as 'centimetre' and 'centigram'. Its closest relatives include 'millilitre', 'decilitre', and the broader family of metric units built on Greek and Latin numerical prefixes.
How centilitre is actually used
The spelling 'centilitre' is standard in British English; American English uses 'centiliter'. The unit is more common in Europe than in North America, where fluid ounces or millilitres are typically preferred. The abbreviation 'cl' appears on beverage labels. The word is formal/technical in register rather than colloquial.
Easily confused with centilitre
A millilitre is one thousandth of a litre and is much smaller than a centilitre, which equals ten millilitres.