in general, an interval between two things, with regard either to time or place.

Accessible Distances, in Geometry, are such as may be measured by the chain.

Inaccessible Distances are such as cannot be measured by the chain, by reason of some river, or the like, which obstructs the passage from one object to another.

Astronomy. The distance of the sun, planets, and comets, is found only from their parallax, as it cannot be found either by eclipses or their different phases; for, from the theory of the motions of the earth and planets, we know, at any time, the proportion of the distances of the sun and planets from us; and the horizontal parallaxes are in a reciprocal proportion to these distances.