Educational Content: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment.
Definition of Centimeter (cm)
Medically reviewed by Min Clinic Staff | Updated: January 2026
Centimeter (cm): A unit of measure in the metric system which is 1/100'th of a meter. There are 2.54 centimeters (cms) in one inch. The centimeter is commonly used in medicine to state the size of objects or distance between points.
It may seem senseless to define a centimeter in a medical dictionary but in North American medicine (and medicine everywhere) today, length measurements are usually expressed in such metric units and not in inches or feet.