millimeter
MIL-uh-mee-ter · noun
FrenchEnglish
Origin
Millimeter comes from French millimètre, built to look like it combines milli- with meter, even though the French coined it as a single unit word.
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Journey
The word entered English essentially unchanged from French, keeping its role as a small, precise unit of length.
Related words
Because it's built from the same root as meter, it shares a family resemblance with every other -meter word, like kilometer or centimeter.