Palm (length)

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Hand-derived units of measurement: 1: Shaftment 2: Hand or handbreadth, commonly used to represent the width of the palm, sometimes including the thumb when closed against the palm 3: Palm, sometimes also represented by four fingers held together, which is slightly less than the true width of the palm at the knuckle 4: Span 5: Finger or fingerbreadth 6: Digit slightly smaller than a finger)
Hand-derived units of measurement:
1: Shaftment
2: Hand or handbreadth, commonly used to represent the width of the palm, sometimes including the thumb when closed against the palm
3: Palm, sometimes also represented by four fingers held together, which is slightly less than the true width of the palm at the knuckle
4: Span
5: Finger or fingerbreadth
6: Digit slightly smaller than a finger)


A palm, when used as a unit of length, is usually four digits (fingers) or three inches, i.e. 7.62 cm (for the international inch).

In English this unit has mostly fallen out of use, as have others based on the human arm: digit (¼ palm), finger (7/24 palm), hand (4/3 palms), shaftment (2 palms), span (3 palms), cubit (6 palms) and ell (15 palms).

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