height
nouncommon in dialogue
- //haɪt//
- //heɪt//
The distance from the base to the top of something.
noun
- 1
The distance from the base to the top of something.
Happiness Makes Up in Height for What It Lacks in Length [title of poem]
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.
- 2
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).
— What's your height? — 180 centimetres.
- 3
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.
The area of a triangle is "a half base times height".
- 4
The distance from the base to the top of something. The amplitude of a sinusoid.
- 5
The distance of something above the ground or some other chosen level.
We flew at a height of 15 000 meters.
I'm afraid of heights.
- 6
A high point.
At length they arrived at the open road, skirted by a wide heath, bounded by the rising heights of the undulating country.
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.
- 7
figurativeA high point. The highest point or maximum degree.
She's at the height of her career.
[…]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[…]
Leo, then at the height of his pontificate, despatched a letter to Cerularius demanding that the Patriarch should recognize the supremacy of the popes, and branding any church that refused such recognition as “an assembly of heretics, a conventicle of schismatics, a synagogue of Satan.”⁷⁶
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.
- 8
A high point. A mountain, especially a very high one.
- 9
A high point. An area of land at the top of a cliff.
- 10
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.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kewk- Proto-Indo-European *kówk-o-s Proto-Germanic *hauhaz Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂der. Proto-Germanic *-iþō Proto-Germanic *hauhiþō Proto-West Germanic *hauhiþu Old English hīehþu Middle English heighte English height 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). The regular pronunciation is now obsolete /heɪt/ (as with other words in -eight); the modern form developed early on, at first as a variant, by analogy with the underlying adjective. 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”).
Forms
- plural
- heights
height · The distance from the base to the top of something.
Height · A surname.heights · A neighborhood or other development built on a hill or…heil · To greet with a Sieg Heil.