summit

Pluralsummits

Formssummits, summiting, summited

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The very top of something, whether its highest point or its uppermost surface.

   Workers bolted a copper weather vane to the summit of the cathedral spire.

   A bronze statue once stood on the flat summit of the marble column.

   Similartop, apex, peak, tip, crown

   Oppositebase, bottom, foot

   Note

   Here the word keeps the broad meaning it arrived with: Middle English somet, 'head, top', came from Anglo-Norman sumet and Middle French sommet, 'top of a thing'. Nothing in that source is about mountains. The mountaintop meaning, like the crystal and canal uses, is this sense fitted to one kind of object, which is why a spire or a column can have a summit as naturally as a hill does.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The highest point of a hill, mountain, or similar landform.

   After twelve hours of climbing, they stood on the summit at dawn.

   A radio tower marks the summit of the ridge.

   Similarzenith, acme

   Oppositebase, foot, bottom

   Note

   The landscape sense stays closest to the word's origin. Late Middle English had somet, 'head, top', borrowed from Anglo-Norman sumet and Middle French sommet, 'top of a thing'. It usually takes of plus a name (the summit of Mount Shasta), or stands alone once the mountain is clear from context. A rare twin, summity, carries the same meaning.

3. 3
   nounfigurativelycountable

   A gathering of national leaders convened to discuss matters of international importance; also, loosely, any high-level meeting.

   Heads of state gathered at the summit to negotiate a ceasefire.

   Each summit produced a joint statement on security cooperation.

   Similarconference, meeting

   Note

   Here the word moved from the highest people to the occasion that brings them together. Diplomatic writing pairs it with a scope or subject, as in an international summit or a summit on environmental issues. The loose extension to any important meeting is common in business and campaign language. In political reporting, though, readers still expect heads of state or government.

4. 4
   nounfigurativelycountable

   The highest point of achievement or development that can be reached; the peak.

   The novel is widely regarded as the summit of his creative powers.

   Few athletes ever reach the summit of their sport.

   Similarpeak, pinnacle, height, zenith, acme

   Oppositenadir, bottom

5. 5
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To reach the highest point of a mountain by climbing it.

   The team summited the mountain despite worsening weather.

   Only two climbers managed to summit K2 that season.

   Similarclimb, scale, conquer, ascend

   Oppositedescend

   Note

   Climbers turned the noun into a verb, and the result is informal but now routine in mountaineering writing. It even takes the passive: Canadian Geographic in 2012 described a peak that 'has yet to be summited'. Spelling varies in the inflected forms. Summited and summiting are more usual, but summitted and summitting also occur.

6. 6
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To reach the highest point of a mountain while climbing.

   Exhausted but elated, the climbers summited at dawn.

   Only a handful of the group managed to summit before the storm rolled in.

   Note

   Without an object, the mountain is simply understood. The verb then often pairs with a time or condition: summited at dawn, summited before the storm. It shares the informal climbing register and the variable spelling of the transitive verb. In formal prose, 'reached the summit' remains the safer choice.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To take part in a meeting held at the level of national leaders.

   The G7 nations summited to coordinate their response to the crisis.

   Rarely do rival heads of state summit without preconditions.

   Similarmeet, confer

   Note

   Political journalism coined this verb for a leader at the conference table. It typically appears in the progressive with 'with' and a counterpart: Newsweek in 1972 had Richard Nixon 'summiting in Moscow', and other writers describe presidents 'summiting with' Khrushchev or Brezhnev. It carries a breezy, headline flavor, so use it in reporting rather than formal diplomatic prose.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   The highest point reached by a canal, railway, road, or similar route, beyond which it begins to descend.

   Locks were built on either side of the canal's summit to manage the water.

   Engineers placed a water supply at the railway summit to feed the descending track.

   Similarzenith, acme

   Note

   For engineers, a summit is a point along a route rather than a peak on a map: the place where a canal, railway or road stops climbing and starts down. On a canal the idea matters most, because the highest level needs the greatest water supply. Every lock worked on either side lets water run downhill from it.

9. 9
   pronoundialectalEnglandYorkshire

   Alternative spelling of summat. A dialect word for "something" in parts of England.

   I reckon there's summit going on next door.

   Have you got summit to tell me?

   Note

   This is a different word that happens to share the spelling, a variant of the regional summat heard in England, especially Lancashire and Yorkshire. As a pronoun it means 'something' (get summit to eat). Summat also works as an adverb meaning 'somewhat'. In writing, the summat spelling avoids any confusion with the mountaintop noun.

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