Word of the Day
25 April 2026
chain
nounSurveying
A series of interconnected links of known length, used as a measuring device.
Why this one
Gunter's chain fixed the length at 66 feet in 100 links, which is why an acre is ten square chains and a mile is eighty of them; the awkward number is what made the arithmetic of land come out even. A cricket pitch is still one chain.
In use
Old deed gives the frontage as three chains and forty links, so I've been converting the whole plan back to feet before we set out.
Written by our editors to show how the term is used, not a recorded quotation.