last mile

noun

plural last miles
1
: the final stage of the distance that must be covered by a service (as a telecommunications network or delivery service) in order to reach a consumer
… there will be only two ways to make big money. One is in owning the so-called last mile of cable leading to the home. The other is in owning content. Janet Guyon
The Internet may seem amorphous, but it's at heart pretty physical. Its backbone is a huge array of fiber-optic, telephone, and TV cables that carry data from country to country. To gain access, you need someone to connect your house to that backbone. This is what's known as the "last mile" problem, and it's usually solved by large internet service providers … Clive Thompson
sometimes hyphenated when used before another noun
That's why UPS and FedEx don't ship everywhere. It's just not profitable. So where do they turn for last-mile delivery? To the Postal Service. Josh Sanburn
2
: the walk of a condemned person to the place of execution
usually used with the
Some of Sing Sing's higher-profile cases received sensational coverage … spawning more than a dozen major Hollywood movies that imprinted chilling images of the chair, the last mile, and other macabre conventions onto the minds of generations of Americans. Scott Christianson

Examples of last mile in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
To travel this last mile well, data professionals need to switch modes of operation from the technical to the human. Ben Jones, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2025 Optimizing this last mile requires balancing numerous variables such as delivery schedules, traffic, weather and customer preferences. Yuval Boger, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1974, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of last mile was in 1974

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Cite this Entry

“Last mile.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/last%20mile. Accessed 21 Mar. 2025.

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