Decimeters to Feet (dm to ft)

1 decimeter equals 0.3280839895 feet (rounded).

1 decimeter = 0.3280839895 feet

How to convert decimeters to feet

To convert decimeters to feet, multiply the number of decimeters by 0.3280839895. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply feet by 3.048.

feet = decimeters × 0.3280839895

Example: 10 decimeters = 3.280839895 feet.

About these units

Decimeter (dm)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One tenth of a meter (10 cm). Rarely used in everyday practice.

Deci, meaning a tenth, was among the prefixes of the first metric system, and Wikipedia's prefix table dates it to 1795. The decimeter (dm) is therefore 10 centimeters, 100 millimeters or about 3.937 inches. Of all the early metric multiples it is the one that shows up least in daily speech, since people reach for centimeters or meters instead.

Its real importance is as the edge of the liter. A liter is defined as one cubic decimeter, so a 10 cm cube holds exactly one liter. Between 1901 and 1964 the liter was defined through the kilogram instead, which made it very slightly different from the cubic decimeter. The unit also survives in a few specialist places. Chemists record the path length used for specific rotation in decimeters, and ship draught marks are given in decimeters in most of the world. A standard compact disc, at 120 mm, is 1.2 dm across.

1 decimeter = 0.1 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Decimetre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix; NIST: metric (SI) prefixes

Foot (ft)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

12 inches. Defined as exactly 0.3048 meters. Still the standard unit for height, altitude in aviation and room dimensions in the US and UK.

Human anatomy supplied the idea: an adult foot is roughly 15 percent of body height. Ancient cultures turned that into standards, but not the same one. The Greek pous was about 302 mm, the standard Roman pes about 295.7 mm, and a Harappan foot of about 335 mm has been reported from the Indus Valley. Historically, a foot fell somewhere between about 250 and 335 mm. Charlemagne tried to standardize units around 790 with little lasting success, and in 1593 English law fixed the statute mile at 5,280 feet.

The modern foot dates from the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement, which defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meter and so the foot as exactly 0.3048 meter; the UK adopted it on 1 January 1964. The US survey foot, defined in 1893 as 1200/3937 meter, was deprecated on 31 December 2022. Feet remain in everyday use for height and rooms in the US, and ISO shipping containers are defined in them. Aviation altitudes use them too: flight level 330 means 33,000 feet.

1 foot = 0.3048 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Foot (unit); Wikipedia: Mile; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Related conversions

See all length units.