Altitude

How to spell altitude

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce altitude

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does altitude mean?

1. nounThe height of an object or point above a fixed level, especially above sea level.

Altitude in a sentence

• The pilot levelled the plane at a cruising altitude of ten thousand metres.

• Climbers often feel short of breath at high altitude.

Where does altitude come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin altitudo, meaning 'height' or 'depth', which was formed from the adjective altus, literally 'high' or 'tall'. Curiously, altus could also mean 'deep', because it derived from alere, 'to nourish or grow', so the root really captured the idea of something that has grown to a great extent in either direction. English took the word in during the late 1300s, borrowing it from the Latin form through scholarly and astronomical writing, where measuring the height of stars above the horizon mattered. The same altus root survives in everyday relatives such as 'exalt', meaning to raise up, and the musical term 'alto', the higher voice. The spelling keeps the Latin -itude ending intact, which is the part writers most often need to fix in their memory.

How the word is built

• alt- (from altus: high)
• -itude (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)