Word.ws English Dictionary

your mileage may vary

Syllables: your mile·age may varyUK/jə ˈmaɪlədʒ meɪ ˈvɛəɹi/US/jɚ ˈmaɪlədʒ meɪ ˈvɛəɹi/

your mileage may vary phrase: it may work differently in your situation, or be different in your experience.

your mileage may vary: it may work differently in your situation, or be different in your experience
Image: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Phrase

your mileage may vary

  1. (Canada, US, idiomatic, often) It may work differently in your situation, or be different in your experience.
    • The battery lasts a day in my phone, but your mileage may vary.
    • When that definition is executed, the metadata for the temporary table is put into your schema (most likely—your mileage may vary), but no space is allocated to hold data.1993, Jim Melton, Alan R. Simon, “Basic Data Definition Language (DDL)”, in Understanding the New SQL: A Complete Guide, San Francisco, Calif.: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, →ISBN, section 4.3.4...
  2. (Canada, US, idiomatic) Used to express a possible difference in taste: this is just my opinion, your opinion may be different.
    • I think that red dress looks really good on you, but your mileage may vary, of course.
    • Your mileage may vary when it comes to the over-the-top carnage and in-your-face machismo, but it’s impressive just how bonkers Fate [The Fate of the Furious] is, like a litter of kittens hopped up on grade-A catnip.2017 April 12, Brian Truitt, “Review: ‘Fate’ is furious enough to excite the faithful”, in USA Today, archived from the original on 06 Sep 2018

Examples of your mileage may vary in a sentence

  • In other words, your mileage may vary and my disk-size figures are just estimates provided for your convenience.1994, Bob LeVitus, Macintosh System 7.5 for Dummies (For Dummies), San Mateo, Calif.: IDG Books, →ISBN, page 328:
  • We pause here to emphasize that with animals, there are no absolutes. […] We like to say that with any given wolf or dog, "your mileage may vary."2012, Jessica Addams, Andrew Miller, “Modern Wolf Mythology: The Things that ‘Everyone Knows’”, in Between Dog and Wolf: Understanding the...

Synonyms of your mileage may vary

Origin of your mileage may vary

The United States Environmental Protection Agency requires all new vehicles to undergo a set of standard emissions tests which simulate city and highway driving. Part of the test measures estimated city and highway gas (petrol) mileage estimates. Since no test can exactly simulate all driving habits and conditions, the actual gas mileage of each vehicle will vary. As a result, when these estimated mileage claims from automobile manufacturers appear in advertisements, they are almost always accompanied with the standard disclaimer “your mileage may vary”.

Questions about your mileage may vary

What does your mileage may vary mean?
Your mileage may vary means it may work differently in your situation, or be different in your experience.
How do you use your mileage may vary in a sentence?
In other words, your mileage may vary and my disk-size figures are just estimates provided for your convenience.
What part of speech is your mileage may vary?
Your mileage may vary is a phrase.
How do you pronounce your mileage may vary?
Your mileage may vary is pronounced /jə ˈmaɪlədʒ meɪ ˈvɛəɹi/ (UK).

Words near your mileage may vary in the dictionary

  1. Your Maj
  2. Your Majesties
  3. Your Majesty
  4. your man
  5. your mileage may differ
  6. your mileage may vary
  7. your mission, should you choose to accept it
  8. your mom
  9. your money is no good here
  10. your money or your life
  11. your mother

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: your mileage may vary (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-your mileage may vary.ogg.

Cite this entry: “your mileage may vary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/your_mileage_may_vary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.