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The avoirdupois (IPA: /ˌævərdəˈpɔɪz/; French IPA: [avwɑrdypwɑ]) system is a system of weights (or, properly, mass) based on a pound of sixteen ounces. It is the everyday system of weight used in the United States. It is still widely used by many people in Canada and the United Kingdom despite the official adoption of the metric system, including the compulsory introduction of metric units in shops. It is considered[citation needed] more modern than the alternative troy or apothecary or the medieval English mercantile and Tower systems. The former Weights and Measures office in Middlesex, England. ...
For other uses, see Mass (disambiguation). ...
The pound or pound-mass (abbreviations: lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States, #) is a unit of mass (sometimes called weight in everyday parlance) in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...
The ounce (abbreviation: oz) is the name of a unit of mass in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...
Metrication or metrification refers to the introduction of the SI metric system as the international standard for physical measurements—a long-term series of independent and systematic conversions from the various separate local systems of weights and measures. ...
The International System of Units (symbol: SI) (for the French phrase Syst me International dUnit s) is the most widely used system of units. ...
Troy weight is a system of units of mass customarily used for precious metals, black powder, and gemstones. ...
The apothecaries system of mass is an obsolete system formerly used by apothecaries (now called pharmacists or chemists) in English-speaking countries. ...
History of the term
The word avoirdupois is from French and Middle English (Anglo-French) avoir de pois, "goods of weight" or "goods sold by weight", and from Old French aveir de peis, literally "goods of weight", from aveir, "property, goods" (from aveir, "to have", from Latin habere, "to have, to hold, to possess property") + de, "from" (from the Latin) + peis, "weight", from Latin pensum, "weight". This term originally referred to a class of merchandise: aveir de peis, "goods of weight", things that were sold in bulk and were weighed on large steelyards or balances. Only later did it become identified with a particular system of units used to weigh such merchandise. The imaginative orthography of the day and the passage of the term through a series of languages (Latin, Anglo-French and English) has left many variants of the term, such as haberty-poie and haber de peyse. (The Norman "peis" became the Parisian "pois". In the 1600s "de" was replaced with "du".)
Original forms These are the units in their original French forms: | Table of mass units | | Unit | Relative
value | Notes | | dram or drachm | 1/256 | 1/16 once | | once | 1/16 | 1/16 livre | | livre | 1 | | | quintal | 100 | plural: quintaux | | tonne | 2000 | | Also see the article : Greek drachma. ...
Drachma, pl. ...
The ounce (abbreviation: oz) is the name of a unit of mass in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...
The pound or pound-mass (abbreviations: lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States, #) is a unit of mass (sometimes called weight in everyday parlance) in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...
Hundred weight or hundredweight is a unit of measurement for mass in both the system of measurement used in the United Kingdom (and previously throughout the British Commonwealth), and in the system used in the United States. ...
Look up ton in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
British adaptation When people in Britain began to use this system they included the stone, which was eventually defined as fourteen avoirdupois pounds. The quarter, hundredweight, and ton were altered, respectively, to 28 lb, 112 lb, and 2240 lb in order for masses to be easily converted between them and stone. The following are the units in the British or imperial adaptation of the avoirdupois system: The stone is a unit of mass in the Imperial system of weights and measures used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and most Commonwealth countries. ...
For other uses, see Mass (disambiguation). ...
The Imperial units or the Imperial system is a collection of English units, first defined in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, later refined (until 1959) and reduced. ...
| Table of mass units | | Unit | Relative
value | Metric
value | Notes | | dram or drachm | 1/256 | ~1.772 g | 1/16 oz | | ounce (oz) | 1/16 | ~28.35 g | 1/16 lb | | pound (lb) | 1 | ~453.6 g | | | stone (st) | 14 | ~6.35 kg | 14 lb. The plural form is conventionally written the same as the singular, 'stone'. | | quarter (qtr) | 28 | ~12.7 kg | 2 st. Sometimes called the 'long quarter' to distinguish it from the U.S. unit. | | hundredweight (cwt) | 112 | ~50.8 kg | 4 qtr. Sometimes called the 'long hundredweight' to distinguish it from the 'short hundredweight'. | | ton (t) | 2240 | ~1016 kg | 20 cwt. Sometimes called the 'long ton' to distinguish it from the short ton. |
American customary system The British colonies in North America, however, adopted the French system as it was. In the U.S., quarters, hundredweights, and tons remain defined as 25, 100, and 2000 lb (though the quarter is virtually unused, as is the hundredweight outside of agriculture and commodities); if disambiguation is required then tons are referred to as the "short" units, as opposed to the British "long" units. Betsy Ross purportedly sewed the first American flag with 13 stars and 13 stripes representing each of the 13 colonies. ...
North America North America is a continent[1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ...
| Table of mass units | | Unit | Relative
value | Metric
value | Notes | | dram (dr) | 1/256 | ~1.772 g | 1/16 oz | | ounce (oz) | 1/16 | ~28.35 g | 1/16 lb | | pound (lb) | 1 | ~453.6 g | | | quarter (qtr) | 25 | ~11.34 kg | 25 lb. Not used to any significant extent. | | hundredweight (cwt) | 100 | ~45.36 kg | 4 qtr. Sometimes called the 'short hundredweight' to distinguish it from the long hundredweight. | | ton (t) | 2000 | ~907.2 kg | 20 cwt. Sometimes called the 'short ton' to distinguish it from the long ton. |
Internationalization In the avoirdupois system, all units are multiples or fractions of the pound, which is now defined as 0.45359237 kg in most of the English-speaking world since 1959. (See the Mendenhall Order for references) The pound or pound-mass (abbreviations: lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States, #) is a unit of mass (sometimes called weight in everyday parlance) in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...
“Kg†redirects here. ...
The Mendenhall Order marked a decision to change the USAs weights and measures from the customary system based on that of England to the metric system. ...
Due to the ambiguous meanings of "weight" as referring to both mass and force, it is sometimes erroneously asserted that the pound is only a unit of force. However, as defined above the pound is a unit of mass, which agrees with common usage. Also see pound-force and pound-mass. The pound-force is a non-SI unit of force or weight (properly abbreviated lbf or lbf). The pound-force is equal to a mass of one pound multiplied by the standard acceleration due to gravity on Earth (which is defined as exactly 9. ...
Officially the pound is the name for at least three different units of mass: The pound (avoirdupois). ...
See also Look up Avoirdupois in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ...
In France, before the decimalised metric system of 1799, a well-defined old system existed, however with some local variants. ...
The apothecaries system of mass is an obsolete system formerly used by apothecaries (now called pharmacists or chemists) in English-speaking countries. ...
The Imperial units or the Imperial system is a collection of English units, first defined in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, later refined (until 1959) and reduced. ...
Troy weight is a system of units of mass customarily used for precious metals, black powder, and gemstones. ...
U.S. customary units, commonly known in the United States as English units or standard units, are units of measurement that are currently used in the U.S., in some cases alongside units from SI (the International System of Units—the modern metric system). ...
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