last mile

last mile

English

WOTD – 31 December 2021

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌlɑːst ˈmaɪl/, /ˌlæst-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌlæst ˈmaɪl/
• Rhymes: -aɪl

Noun

last mile (plural last miles) (idiomatic, often attributively)

1. (logistics, transport) The final stage of delivery of goods, etc., from a distribution centre to the consumer, often involving greater effort or expense. [from mid 1970s]

   Synonym: last kilometre

2. (telecommunications) The portion of the infrastructure that carries communication signals from the main system to the end user's business or home, often involving greater expense to install and maintain, and lower transmission speeds.

   Synonym: last kilometre

   Coordinate term: middle mile

   The problem getting to all these remote customers is still the last mile, no matter how far they live from the switch.

Translations

final stage of delivery of goods, etc., from a distribution centre to the consumer

Finnish: viimeinen kilometri Indonesian: mil terakhir Japanese: ラストワンマイル

portion of the infrastructure the carries communication signals from the main system to the end user’s business or home

Azerbaijani: son mil Belarusian: апошняя міля (apóšnjaja milja) Chinese: Mandarin: 最後一公里／最后一公里 (zuìhòuyīgōnglǐ) Czech: poslední míle f Finnish: tilaajapää French: dernier kilomètre (fr) m German: letzte Meile f Italian: ultimo miglio (it) m Japanese: ラストワンマイル Polish: łącze abonenckie n Russian: последняя ми́ля f (poslednjaja mílja) Ukrainian: остання миля (ostannja mylja)

Further reading

• last mile on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• last mile (transportation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “last mile, n.” under “last, adv., adj., and n.⁴”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2021.
• “last mile, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Maillets, mistella