height
Pluralheights
- 1How tall a person, animal, or thing is, measured from the base or the ground to the top; a horse is measured to the withers.
The doctor recorded the patient's height and weight before the exam.
The vet measured the mare's height at the withers and found she stood fifteen hands.
UsageCommon patterns: six feet in height, a woman of average height.
- 2The vertical distance between something and the ground, or between it and another chosen level.
The drone hovered at a height of fifty meters above the field.
Climbers felt the thin air more sharply at that height.
UsageFor a stated figure, say at a height of: hovering at a height of fifty meters.
Similaraltitude
Oppositedepth
Note
Altitude in everyday clothes: this height is measured above the ground or another chosen level, not from an object's own base as in the base-to-top measure. In the plural it turns into places, so being afraid of heights means fearing high places, not measurements.
- 3The highest point or the maximum degree that something reaches.
The festival was at the height of its popularity that summer.
Tensions reached their height just before the two sides signed the deal.
UsageUsually with the: at the height of her career, the height of fashion.
Similarpeak, summit, climax, pinnacle, zenith
Note
The plural names a level of achievement, whether one still to reach, as in reach new heights, or a past best, as in a BBC Sport report where City "never quite reached the heights" of a 6-1 win. Shakespeare could still write at height with no article in Hamlet.
- 4A high place or area of raised ground, such as a hill, a mountain, or land above a cliff; often plural, as in 'a fear of heights'.
The fortress was built on a height overlooking the river.
The army camped on a wooded height overlooking the harbor, where it could watch every ship that came in.
UsageYou are on a height or on the heights above a place; a fear of heights is about high places.
Less common meanings
- 5The perpendicular distance from a vertex of a triangle to the line containing the opposite side.
She dropped a perpendicular line to measure the triangle's height.
In an obtuse triangle the height can fall outside the figure itself.
Similaraltitude
Note
Geometry fixes exactly where the measurement runs: always at right angles to a chosen base. Because any side can serve as the base, every triangle has three heights, one from each vertex. Altitude is the usual alternative term. The pairing of height with base is what the familiar area formula rests on: a half base times height.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- A triangle's height is perpendicular to the chosen base. mathopenref.com
- Any side of a triangle can serve as its base. mathopenref.com
- Every triangle has three heights, corresponding to its three vertices. mathopenref.com
- Altitude is an alternative term for a triangle's height. mathopenref.com
- A triangle's area equals one-half its base times the corresponding height. en.wikipedia.org
- 6The amplitude of a sinusoid: its maximum displacement from the central axis.
When the sine wave's height doubled, each peak rose twice as far above the center line.
Engineers adjusted the height of the output waveform to match the target level.
Similaramplitude
Note
Here the measurement starts from the middle, not the bottom. A sinusoid's height is taken from its central axis to a crest, so it is half the distance from trough to crest. Read a waveform's height that way and it equals the amplitude. If you measure from the lowest point instead, you get twice the figure.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The measurement described runs from the sinusoid's central axis to a crest and equals its amplitude. khanacademy.org
- A sinusoid's amplitude is half its trough-to-crest displacement. openstax.org
- Measuring the sinusoidal waveform from its midline to a crest gives its amplitude. openstax.org
- Measuring from trough to crest gives twice the amplitude. openstax.org
- 7A quality of vowels indicating the vertical position of the tongue relative to the roof of the mouth, corresponding in practice to the first formant.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of height apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English heighte, from Old English hēahþu ("height"), going back through Proto-West Germanic *hauhiþu to Proto-Germanic *hauhiþō. It is essentially "high" plus an abstract noun suffix, and is related to Dutch hoogte and Old Norse hæð.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Height descends from Middle English heighte and Old English hēahþu, meaning height, through reconstructed Proto-West Germanic *hauhiþu from Proto-Germanic *hauhiþō. en.wiktionary.org
- The ancestral formation combines the adjective meaning high with a suffix. en.wiktionary.org
- The suffix forms abstract nouns. en.wiktionary.org
- Height is cognate with Dutch hoogte. en.wiktionary.org
- Old Norse hæð shares the Proto-Germanic ancestor of height. en.wiktionary.org