your mileage may vary

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. It may work differently in your situation, or be different in your experience.
  2. Used to express a possible difference in taste: this is just my opinion, your opinion may be different.

Pronunciation

/jə ˈmaɪlədʒ meɪ ˈvɛəɹi/ /jɚ ˈmaɪlədʒ meɪ ˈvɛəɹi/ en-au-your mileage may vary.ogg

Word forms

your mileage may vary

Etymology

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”.

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.