height
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: hīt
ipa: /haɪt/
enpr: hāt
ipa: /heɪt/
rhymes: -aɪt
homophone: hight
Forms: form: heights
form: heighth
form: heigth
form: hight
form: highth
Etymology: From Middle English heighte, heiȝþe, from Old English hēahþu, hēhþo, hīehþu (“height”), Proto-West Germanic *hauhiþu, from Proto-Germanic *hauhiþō (compare *hauhaz). Equivalent to high + -t (abstract nominal suffix).
Cognates
See also Saterland Frisian Höchte, Hööchte (“height”), West Frisian hichte (“height”), Dutch hoogte (“height”), Middle High German hœhede, hœhte (“height”), Old Norse hæð (“height”) (compare Swedish höjd, Norwegian høyde), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐌹𐌸𐌰 (hauhiþa, “height”).
Senses: examples: text: Happiness Makes Up in Height for What It Lacks in Length [title of poem]
ref: 1942, Robert Frost, “Happiness Makes Up in Height for What It Lacks in Length”, in A Witness Tree, New York: Henry Hold and Company, published 1943, page 15:
text: He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
synonyms: stature
glosses: The distance from the base to the top of something.
examples: text: — What's your height? — 180 centimetres.
synonyms: stature
glosses: The distance from the base to the top of something.
The vertical distance from the ground to the highest part of a standing person or animal (withers in the case of a horse).
examples: text: The area of a triangle is "a half base times height".
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
synonyms: stature
altitude
glosses: The distance from the base to the top of something.
The minimum distance from a vertex of a triangle to (the extension of) the edge opposite, namely along a line perpendicular to the edge.
topics: mathematics
sciences
synonyms: stature
glosses: The distance from the base to the top of something.
The amplitude of a sinusoid.
examples: text: We flew at a height of 15 000 meters.
text: I'm afraid of heights.
synonyms: altitude
antonyms: depth
glosses: The distance of something above the ground or some other chosen level.
examples: text: At length they arrived at the open road, skirted by a wide heath, bounded by the rising heights of the undulating country.
ref: 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 37:
text: The Guardian of the Flooded Village has grown for 350 years on a rocky height near the village of Chudobin, said locally to play host to a devil that sat under it at night, playing the violin and warding off intruders – though in reality the eerie sounds are more likely to have come from the strong winds blowing over the valley.
ref: 2020 March 17, Fiona Harvey, “Pine tree near flooded Czech village voted European tree of the year”, in The Guardian:
glosses: A high point.
examples: text: She's at the height of her career.
text: […]They clip vs drunkards, and with Swiniſh phraſe / Soyle our addition, and indeede it takes / From our atchieuements, though perform’d at height / The pith and marrow of our attribute[…]
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
text: During the height of Italian immigration in the United States and in New York City, gangs flourished not only because of poverty but also because of political and social corruption. Policemen and politicians were often as crooked as the gang leaders themselves.
ref: 2004, Peter Bondanella, chapter 4, in Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos, pages 173–174:
text: If City never quite reached the heights of their 6-1 demolition of United, then Roberto Mancini's side should still have had this game safe long before Johnson restored their two-goal advantage.
ref: 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport:
text: In the nineteen-fifties, the height of aspirational style was fine French furniture—F.F.F., as it became known in certain precincts of Fifth Avenue and Palm Beach.
ref: 2022 July 18, Evan Osnos, “The Haves and the Have-Yachts”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Jul 2022:
glosses: A high point.
The highest point or maximum degree.
synonyms: word: acme
word: apex
word: zenith
word: apogee
word: apotheosis
word: ascendance
word: capstone
word: climax
word: coronation
word: crown
word: culmination
word: Everest
word: extreme
word: fastigium
word: high note
word: high point
word: high tide
word: high-water mark
word: midday
word: outblossom
word: paroxysm
word: perihelion
word: pinnacle
word: summa
word: summit
glosses: A high point.
A mountain, especially a very high one.
glosses: A high point.
An area of land at the top of a cliff.
qualifier: Sussex
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonetics
phonology
sciences
coordinate_terms: word: backness
english: horizontal dimension
translation: horizontal dimension
word: roundedness
english: lip articulation
translation: lip articulation
word: length
word: nasalization
word: reduction
glosses: A quality of vowels, indicating the vertical position of the tongue relative to the roof of the mouth; in practice, the first formant, associated with the height of the tongue.
Derived terms: aheight
Chicago Heights
Cleveland Heights
coheight
commanding heights
Cornwells Heights
decision height
drying height
find your height
geopotential height
height above average terrain
heighten
heightfield
heighthon
heightism
heightist
heightless
heightmap
height money
height to paper
heightwise
Irlams o' th' Height
isoheight
legal height
line-height
metacentric height
midheight
no-height
overheight
ride height
Ryland Heights
scale height
significant wave height
slant height
star height
up a height
Valley Heights
vanity height
x-height
Related terms: high