decimeter

In the metric system, a decimeter is a unit of measurement that’s about the same as four inches. A standard sheet of paper is a little more than a decimeter wide.

There are ten decimeters in a meter, and the word itself comes from the French deci- and the Latin decimus, “tenth.” Each decimeter is one-tenth of a meter, a measurement that’s common in many parts of the world although relatively unusual in the U.S. Americans also spell it differently than most metric system-users, who write decimetre.