This is a list of

units of measurement A unit of measurement, or unit of measure, is a definite magnitude (mathematics), magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other qua ...

based on

human body The human body is the entire structure of a Human, human being. It is composed of many different types of Cell (biology), cells that together create Tissue (biology), tissues and subsequently Organ (biology), organs and then Organ system, org ...

parts or the attributes and abilities of humans (anthropometric units). It does not include derived units further unless they are also themselves human-based. These units are thus considered to be

human scale Human scale is the set of physical qualities, and quantities of information, characterizing the human body, its motor, sensory, or mental capabilities, and human social institutions. Science vs. human scale Many of the objects of scientific i ...

and

anthropocentric Anthropocentrism ( ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity on the planet. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. From a ...

. A

cross-cultural Cross-cultural may refer to: *cross-cultural studies, a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis *cross-cultural communication, a field of study that looks at how people from differing culture, cultural backgrounds communicate * ...

review of body-based measurement systems has found such units to be ubiquitous worldwide.

Area

Morgen A Morgen (Mg) is a historical, but still occasionally used, German unit of area used in agriculture. Officially, it is no longer in use, having been supplanted by the hectare. While today it is approximately equivalent to the Prussian ''morgen' ...

- the area that one man could plow from morning to noon *

Quinaria A quinaria (plural: quinariae) is a Roman unit of area, roughly equal to . Its primary use was to measure the cross-sectional area of pipes in Roman water distribution systems. A "one quinaria" pipe is in diameter. In Roman times, there was ...

- the cross-sectional area of a pipe created from a flat sheet of lead 5 digits wide *

Stremma The stremma ( stremmata; , ''strémma'') is unit of land area used mainly in Greece and Cyprus, equal to 1,000 square metres or approximately ¼ acre. History The ancient Greek equivalent was the square plethron, which served as the Greeks' for ...

- the amount of land a person can plow in a day

Length

* Ald - the distance between a man's outstretched arms * Assbā - Arabic finger * Condylos - middle joint of finger * Cun - width of the human thumb, at the knuckle * Dactylos - Ancient Greek finger breadth * Digit - length of a human finger ** Digitus - Ancient Roman digit *

Etzba Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement were used primarily by ancient Israelites and appear frequently within the Hebrew Bible as well as in later rabbinic writings, such as the Mishnah and Talmud. These units of measurement continue to be used ...

- fingerbreadth *

Fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. H ...

- the distance between the fingertips of a human's outstretched arms *

Finger A finger is a prominent digit (anatomy), digit on the forelimbs of most tetrapod vertebrate animals, especially those with prehensile extremities (i.e. hands) such as humans and other primates. Most tetrapods have five digits (dactyly, pentadact ...

Fistmele Fistmele, also known as the "brace height", is a term used in archery to describe the distance between a bow and its string. The term itself is a Saxon word (suffix ''-mele'' referring to the old form of the archaic sense of as "measure") indic ...

- the measure of a clenched hand with the thumb extended * Gradus - Ancient Roman step *

Hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the Koala#Characteristics, koala (which has two thumb#O ...

- breadth of a human hand *

Klafter The ''klafter'' is an historical unit of length, volume and area that was used in Central Europe. Unit of length As a unit of length, the ''klafter'' was derived from the span of a man's outstretched arms and was traditionally about 1.80 met ...

- German measure of outstretched hands *

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

- the distance a person can walk in an hour (by one definition) * *

Orgyia ''Orgyia'' is a genus of tussock moths of the family Erebidae. The genus was described by Ochsenheimer in 1810. The species are cosmopolitan, except for the Neotropical realm. Description The male flies during the day. Its palpi are short, porr ...

- Ancient Greek fathom *

Parasang The parasang, also known as a farsakh (from Arabic), is a historical Iranian peoples, Iranian unit of Walking distance measure, walking distance, the length of which varied according to terrain and speed of travel. The European equivalent is the ...

- the distance an infantryman could march in a predefined period of time * Pygmē - distance from elbow to base of fingers *

Sazhen Historical Russian units of measurement were standardized and used in the Russian Empire and after the Russian Revolution, but were abandoned after 21 July 1925, when the Soviet Union adopted the metric system. The Tatar system is very similar t ...

- Russian fathom *

Shaftment The shaftment is an obsolete unit of length defined since the 12th century as 6 inches, which nowadays is exactly . A shaftment was traditionally the width of the fist and outstretched thumb. The lengths of poles, staves, etc. can be easily measu ...

- width of the fist and outstretched thumb * Span - width of a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger * Spithamē - Ancient Greek span * Zeret - Biblical span

Paces

* Haploun bēma - Ancient Greek single pace * Orgye - Arabic pace *

Pace Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US *Pace Airlines, an American charter airline * Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Compan ...

- a full stride, from heel to heel * Passus - the pace step of a single legionary

Ells

Ell An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", an ...

** Ell (Scots) - length of an average person's arm **

Elle Elle may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Elle (magazine), ''Elle'' (magazine), a fashion publication ** Elle Style Awards * Elle (India), ''Elle'' (India), the Indian edition * Elle (film), ''Elle'' (film), a 2016 French film * ''Elle: ...

- German ell * Amah - Biblical ell

Cubits

* Arsh - Arabic cubit *

Cubit The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding Noah ...

- length of the human

forearm The forearm is the region of the upper limb between the elbow and the wrist. The term forearm is used in anatomy to distinguish it from the arm, a word which is used to describe the entire appendage of the upper limb, but which in anatomy, techn ...

* Macedonian cubit *

Cubitus ''Cubitus'' is a Franco-Belgian comics series, and the basis for the ''Wowser'' cartoon series appearing in the United States. ''Cubitus'' was created by the Belgian cartoonist Dupa, and features Cubitus, a large anthropomorphic dog, who liv ...

- Ancient Roman cubit * Pēchys - Ancient Greek cubit

Palms

* Cabda - Arabic palm * Chetvert/Piad - Russian span/palm * Palaistē/dōron - Ancient Greek palm *

Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

- breadth of four fingers * Palmus - Ancient Roman palm * Tefah/Tefach - Biblical palm

Inches

* Duym - Tatar thumb/inch *

Inch The inch (symbol: in or prime (symbol), ) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British Imperial and the United States customary units, United States customary System of measurement, systems of measurement. It is eq ...

- width of the thumb (by some definitions) *

Uncia Uncia may refer to: * Uncia (coin), an ancient Roman bronze coin * Uncia (length), an ancient Roman unit of length * An ancient Roman unit of mass roughly equivalent to the ounce The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, wei ...

- Roman inch * Zoll - German inch

Feet

Foot The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up o ...

- length of the human foot * Arabic foot * Fuß - German foot * Russian fut - Russian foot * Tatar fut - Tatar foot * Pes - Roman foot *

Pous The pous ( podes; , ''poús'') or Greek foot ( feet) was a Greek unit of length of approximately 300mm or 12 inches. It had various subdivisions whose lengths varied by place and over time. 100 podes made up one plethron, 600 podes made ...

- Greek foot

Loudness

Phon The phon is a logarithmic unit of loudness level for tones and complex sounds. Loudness is measured in sones, a linear unit. Human sensitivity to sound is variable across different frequencies; therefore, although two different tones may pres ...

Sone The sone () is a unit of loudness, the subjective perception of sound pressure. The study of perceived loudness is included in the topic of psychoacoustics and employs methods of psychophysics. Doubling the perceived loudness doubles the sone ...

Mass

Picul The picul , shi (), dan or tam, is a traditional Asian unit of weight, defined as "as much as a man can carry on a shoulder-pole". Throughout most of Chinese history, it was defined as equivalent to 120 catties. Some later definitions (Briti ...

- the weight a person can carry

Time

* Nimesha - the time it takes for a person to blink *

Paramanu Paramanu is a Sanskrit word used in the Vaisheshika school of thought in the Indian Philosophy to denote that part of a ''bhuta'', which is indivisible, indestructible and eternal. In other words, the nitya (eternal) form of the four ''dravy ...

- interval of blinking in humans

Volume

* Choenix - a man's daily grain ration *

Finger tip unit In medicine, a finger tip unit (FTU) is defined as the amount of ointment, cream or other semi-solid dosage form expressed from a tube with a 5 mm diameter nozzle, applied from the distal skin-crease to the tip of the index finger of an adult. ...

Koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

- the amount of rice needed to feed a person for a year * Japanese masu - the amount of rice needed to feed a person for a day

Miscellaneous

* Garn - unit of measure for symptoms resulting from

space adaptation syndrome Space adaptation syndrome (SAS) or space sickness is a condition experienced by as many as half of all space travelers during their adaptation to weightlessness once in orbit. It is the opposite of terrestrial motion sickness since it occurs whe ...

; equal to complete incapacitation; named for

Jake Garn Edwin Jacob "Jake" Garn (born October 12, 1932) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Utah. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as a member of the United States Senate from 1974 to 1993. Garn ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Human-based units of measurement Technology-related lists *