The measurement of interlingual distance (how far removed one language is from another) is both possible and feasible; and it can be computed in different ways. The difference between the codes of the two languages can be measured by one technique and the differences in samples of discourse by another. The samples may be measured as static entities covering a certain space, or as dynamic or kinetic sequences unrolling in time. The distance between two languages may be measured as the sum of their differences or as the amount of work necessary to convert one language into another. Each can be measured either by taking all the characteristics in which two languages can differ and counting the number of differences in each, or by integrating the immediately observable differences into a single formula of measurement. (This study of interlingual distance begins with a discussion of language universals and types of interlingual distance, followed by a discussion of semantic and formal differences and taxonomic and integral distances in discourse. Figures and tables, using French and English as contrastive illustrations, are included.) (Author/AMM)