schene
schene noun: an Egyptian or Persian measure of length, varying from thirty-two to sixty stadia.
Noun
schene (plural schenes)
- An Egyptian or Persian measure of length, varying from thirty-two to sixty stadia.
- Herodotus has fixed the measure of the schene, in Lower Egypt, at four miles, or a league and a quarter.1786, Mr. Savary, “Letters on Egypt”, in The Critical Review, Or, Annals of Literature, volume 62, page 440
- With regard to the extent of this lake, we recur again to the testimonies above cited: Herodotus says, that the circumference of the lake Mœris was 3600 stadia, or sixty schenes, which, says the historian, form the dimensions of the maritime base of Egypt, (seventy-five leagues.)1817, Encyclopaedia Londinensis, or, Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature, volume 15
Forms of schene
| plural | schenes |
|---|---|
| alternative form | schoene |
| alternative form | schœne |
Origin of schene
From Latin schoenus, from Ancient Greek σχοῖνος (skhoînos, “a rush, a reed, a land measure”).
Questions about schene
- What does schene mean?
- Schene means an Egyptian or Persian measure of length, varying from thirty-two to sixty stadia.
- What part of speech is schene?
- Schene is a noun.
- What is the plural of schene?
- The plural of schene is schenes.
Words near schene in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: schene (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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Cite this entry: “schene.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/schene. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.