Word.ws English Dictionary

go the extra mile

UK/ˈɡəʊ ði ˈɛk.stɹə ˈmaɪl//ˈɡoʊ ði ˈɛk.stɹə ˈmaɪl/

go the extra mile verb: to make an extra effort; to do a particularly good job.

Verb

go the extra mile (third-person singular simple present goes the extra mile, present participle going the extra mile, simple past went the extra mile, past participle gone the extra mile)

  1. (idiomatic) To make an extra effort; to do a particularly good job.
    • President Reagan pledged at a news conference today “to go the extra mile” to compromise with Democrats.1982 April 21, Steven R. Weisman, “Reagan Vows To Go ‘Extra Mile’ to Get Accord on Budget”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 Jul 2012
    • The international community demands that Iran go the extra mile to satisfy concerns over its atomic energy program.2006 September 7, Tony Karon, “Why Iran Has the Upper Hand in the Nuclear Showdown”, in Time

Forms of go the extra mile

third-person singular presentgoes the extra mile
present participlegoing the extra mile
pastwent the extra mile
past participlegone the extra mile

Origin of go the extra mile

* Possibly from the gospel of Matthew ch.5: v.41 *: "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."

Words formed from go the extra mile

Questions about go the extra mile

What does go the extra mile mean?
Go the extra mile means to make an extra effort; to do a particularly good job.
What part of speech is go the extra mile?
Go the extra mile is a verb.
How do you pronounce go the extra mile?
Go the extra mile is pronounced /ˈɡəʊ ði ˈɛk.stɹə ˈmaɪl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of go the extra mile?
The past tense of go the extra mile is went the extra mile.

Words near go the extra mile in the dictionary

  1. go teams
  2. go tell your mother she wants you
  3. go the distance
  4. go the entire animal
  5. go the entire swine
  6. go the extra mile
  7. go the route
  8. go the way of
  9. go the way of all flesh
  10. go the way of all the earth
  11. go the way of the dinosaurs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go the extra mile (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-go the extra mile.ogg, en-au-go the extra mile.ogg.

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