arm's length
arm's length noun: a distance approximately equal to the length of a human's arm.
Noun
arm's length (plural arm's lengths)
- A distance approximately equal to the length of a human's arm.
- I need about ten arm's lengths of yarn.
- A position not suggesting or inviting intimacy.
- She remained at arm's length though we worked together for many years.
- A condition of independence and parity for parties to a transaction.
- The police work at arm's length from the army.
- "Government should have an arms-length relationship with the railway," it adds.2020 April 22, “Labour's blueprint for the future of Britain's railways”, in Rail, page 28
Adjective
arm's length (not comparable)
- Barely within reach.
- Distant, detached.
- Independent, but related.
- Kate Bingham's success is powerful validation of what has been RAIL 's opinion on this key question for many months now: that we must have a new arm's length body, similar to the Vaccine Task Force, to strategically plan and organise our railways... and quickly too.2021 February 24, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Vaccines and railways”, in RAIL, number 925, page 3
Forms of arm's length
| plural | arm's lengths |
|---|
Words formed from arm's length
Questions about arm's length
- What does arm's length mean?
- Arm's length means a distance approximately equal to the length of a human's arm.
- What part of speech is arm's length?
- Arm's length can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of arm's length?
- The plural of arm's length is arm's lengths.
Words near arm's length in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: arm's length (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-arm's length.ogg.
Cite this entry: “arm's length.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arm%27s_length. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.