Exalted

How to spell exalted

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce exalted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exalted mean?

1. adjectiveHolding a very high rank, status, or moral standing; noble and dignified.
2. verbPast tense of exalt: raised someone to a higher rank, or praised them highly.

Exalted in a sentence

• adjective

  She reached the exalted position of chief executive after years of work.

• verb

  The board exalted her to the role of senior partner last spring.

• adjective

  The committee treated his opinion as if it carried some exalted authority.

• verb

  Critics exalted the novel as the finest work of the decade.

Where does exalted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb exaltare, meaning 'to raise up' or 'to lift on high', formed from the prefix ex- ('up, out') and altus, the Latin adjective for 'high' or 'tall'. The same altus root gives English words such as 'altitude' and 'alto', so the buried sense is always one of height, whether literal or figurative. English took the word in through Old French exalter in the late 1300s, at first in the very physical sense of lifting something upward and soon in the figurative sense of raising a person in rank, dignity, or praise. The form 'exalted' is the past participle, used both as a verb and as an adjective describing something noble or lofty. A useful spelling note: keep it distinct from 'exulted' (from Latin exsultare, 'to leap for joy'), since the two look and sound alike but the high-altus 'a' belongs to exalted.

How the word is built

• ex- (up, out)
• alt (high, from Latin altus)
• -ed (adjective / past-participle suffix)