What does mileage mean?
Word: Mileage
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Mileage means the total distance a vehicle has travelled, or the distance it can travel on a set amount of fuel.
Word origin: English, from mile plus the ending -age.
How do you spell mileage?
Syllables: mile - age
Tricky part: Mileage keeps the e of mile before age. Oxford also lists milage, but mileage is the usual form.
Watch out for: milege, mileedge, mylage
Memory tip: Most words drop their final e before age, as store becomes storage, but mile keeps it: the mile stays whole in mileage.
Idioms and Phrases
- your mileage may vary: other people may have a different experience of the same thing. Example: "This shortcut works well for me, but your mileage may vary."
Mileage in a sentence
Example 1: Scooters with good mileage are popular with college students in Rome.
Example 2: Our school bus has clocked a huge mileage on the hill roads of Ooty.
Example 3: Before the drive to the coast, Papa noted down the mileage shown on the car's meter.
Fun Fact
Even in countries that measure their roads in kilometres, people still say mileage when they talk about how far a car or scooter runs on a litre of fuel.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Champ
Read the statements and choose the correct option:
1. A car's mileage shows how far it has been driven. 2. A milestone can be an important stage in someone's life. 3. A mile is shorter than a kilometre.
a) all three are true
b) only 1 and 2 are true
c) only 3 is true
d) only 2 and 3 are true
Show answer
b) only 1 and 2 are true. A mile is about 1.6 kilometres, so statement 3 is false.
Sound Check
In which word is 'age' pronounced differently?
a) mileage
b) village
c) engage
d) postage
Show answer
c) engage. Engage ends with the age of page; in mileage, postage and village the ending is a short idge sound.
Spell Spies
Choose the pair which has a spelling error:
a) post : postage
b) pack : packege
c) mile : mileage
d) bag : baggage
Show answer
b) pack : packege. Package ends in age, just like postage; packege swaps the a for an e.
Word Tally
How many words are misspelt in the given sentence?
Before buying the second-hand scooter, Papa checked its mileage and asked the dealer for the servise record and the insurence papers.
a) 0
b) 2
c) 3
d) 1
Show answer
b) 2. Service ends in ice and insurance in ance, so the sentence has two mistakes.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A second-hand car with low mileage has ___.
a) not been driven very far
b) been painted recently
c) very soft seats
d) a very small engine
Show answer
a) not been driven very far
2. The team got a lot of mileage out of their first win. What does that mean?
a) they drove a long way afterwards
b) they forgot about it quickly
c) they lost the trophy soon after
d) they made good use of it for a long time
Show answer
d) they made good use of it for a long time
