height

Dictionary: height (hīt) pronunciation

1. (Abbr. h) The distance from the base of something to the top.
2. Elevation above a given level, as of the sun or a star above the horizon; altitude. See synonyms at elevation.
1. The condition or attribute of being relatively or sufficiently high or tall.
2. Stature, especially of the human body.
The highest or uppermost point; the summit or apex.
1. The highest or most advanced degree; the zenith: at the height of her career.
2. The point of highest intensity; the climax: the height of a storm.
An eminence, such as a hill or mountain. Often used in the plural.
1. A high point or position.
2. Obsolete. High rank, estate, or degree.
1. Archaic. Loftiness of mind.
2. Obsolete. Arrogance; hauteur: "He returned me a very resolute answer, and full of height" (Oliver Cromwell).

[Middle English, from Old English hēhthu, hēahthu.]

USAGE NOTE The pronunciation of height with a final (th), (hīth), which is rarely heard now, reflects the original spelling and pronunciation of the word in Old English. During the Middle English period, the (th) varied with (t), with the final (t) predominating after the 15th century. Another pronunciation, with a (th) sound coming after (t), (hītth), is often heard, but it is generally regarded as nonstandard. In a recent survey, 90 percent of the Usage Panel disapproved of this pronunciation, which probably came about by association with width, breadth, and length.

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Thesaurus: height

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noun

The distance of something from a given level: altitude, elevation. See high/low.
The highest point: apex, cap, crest, crown, peak, roof, summit, top, vertex. See high/low.
The highest point or state: acme, apex, apogee, climax, crest, crown, culmination, meridian, peak, pinnacle, summit, top, zenith. Informal payoff. Medicine fastigium. See high/low.

Antonyms: height

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Definition: altitude, top part
Antonyms: bottom, depth, low point, lowness, shortness

n

Definition: climax; importance
Antonyms: bottom, nadir, unimportance

Architecture: height

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1. The distance between two points aligned vertically.
2. In buildings, the distance vertically from the average grade at front sides and/or rear of a building (or the average elevation of the curb or curbs of the streets faced by the building) to the average level of the roof.

Word Tutor: height

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IN BRIEF: The distance from the bottom to the top. Also: The highest point.

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities. — Jean Houston

Dream Symbol: Height

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A dream about high elevation may signify reaching the zenith of one's career or achieving some other high objective. If one fears heights in a dream, then one may be striving for things that seem beyond their reach. Such a dream can also relate to other concepts associated with height, such as being "above it all."

Wikipedia: Height

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For other uses, see Height (disambiguation).

A cuboid demonstrating the dimensions length, width, and height

Height is the measurement of vertical distance, but has two meanings in common use. It can either indicate how "tall" something is, or how "high up" it is. For example one could say "That is a tall building", or "That airplane is high up in the sky". These can both be referred to as the height of the object, as in "The height of the building is 50 m" or "The height of the airplane is 10,000 m". When used to describe how high something like an airplane or mountain peak is from sea level, height is more often called altitude. Height is measured along the vertical (y) axis between a specified point and another point.

1 Etymology
2 In mathematics
3 In geology
4 In geodesy
5 In aviation
6 In human culture
7 References
8 See also

Etymology

Look up high in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up height in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

English high is derived from Old English hēah, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *xauxa-z, from a PIE base *keuk-. The derived noun hight, also highth, is from Old English híehþo, later héahþu, as it were from Proto-Germanic *xaux-iþa.

In mathematics

Dimensional models define height as the third dimension, the other two being length and width. If we construct a plane formed by the length and width, and construct a line which intersects that plane at a 90 degree angle, then the height is measured along that line.

Height can also refer to:

1) the altitude of a triangle, which is the length from a vertex of a triangle to the line formed by the opposite side;

2) a measurement in a circular segment of the length from the point of the circular segment farthest from the center, to the line formed by the endpoints of the arc of the segment (see diagram in circular segment).

In geology

Further information: Above mean sea level

Although height is relative to a plane of reference, most measurements of height in the physical world are based upon a zero surface, known as sea level. Both altitude and elevation, two synonyms for height, are usually defined as the position of a point above the mean sea level. One can extend the sea-level surface under the continents: naively, one can imagine a lot of narrow canals through the continents. In practice, the sea level under a continent has to be computed from gravity measurements, and slightly different computational methods exist; see Geodesy, heights.

In geodesy

Instead of using the sea level, geodesists often prefer to define height from the surface of a reference ellipsoid, see Geodetic system, vertical datum.

Defining the height of geographic landmarks becomes a question of reference. For example, the highest mountain by elevation in reference to sea level belongs to Mount Everest, located on the border of Nepal and Tibet, China; however the highest mountain by measurement of apex to base belongs to Mauna Kea in Hawaii, United States.

In aviation

In aviation terminology, the terms height, altitude, and elevation are not synonyms. Usually, the altitude of an aircraft is measured from sea level, while its height is measured from ground level. Elevation is also measured from sea level, but is most often regarded as a property of the ground. Thus, elevation plus height can equal altitude. But the term altitude has several meanings in aviation; see Altitude in aviation.

In human culture

Human height is one of the areas of study within anthropometry. As pointed out in an article [1] in The New Yorker, the average height of human populations appears to be a convenient metric for all the factors that make up a group's well-being.^[1] While height variations within a population are largely genetic, height variations between populations are mostly environmental.

The United Nations uses height (among other statistics) to monitor nutritional standards in developing nations. In human populations, average height can distill down complex data about the group's birth, upbringing, social class, diet, and health care system. However, the height of a human is not always directly connected or related to such things as nutrition, social class, etc.

References

^ Chicago Tribune

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Antonyms. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more
		Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more
		Dream Symbol. The Dreams Encyclopedia. 1995 ©Visible Ink Press. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Height". Read more
		Misspellings. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

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