Higher

How to spell higher

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce higher

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does higher mean?

1. adjectiveGreater in height, level, amount, or degree than something else.

Higher in a sentence

• The shelf is too higher for me to reach without a stool.

• Prices this year are noticeably higher than they were last summer.

Where does higher come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the comparative form of the adjective 'high', which descends from the Old English heah, meaning 'tall, lofty, or elevated'. That word came from a shared Germanic root, related to the Old Norse har and the Dutch hoog, all carrying the sense of great vertical extent. The comparative was originally formed as hierra or hyrra in Old English, and over centuries of sound change and spelling regularisation it settled into the modern pattern of simply adding -er to high. The silent 'gh' in the spelling preserves a guttural sound that English speakers stopped pronouncing long ago, which is exactly why the word is a perfect spoken match for 'hire' and so easily confused with it in writing. Remembering that 'higher' is just 'high' plus the comparative ending is the surest way to keep the spelling straight.

How the word is built

• high (from Old English heah: tall, lofty)
• -er (comparative suffix)

Words that sound like higher

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• hire: To give someone paid employment or take them on for a job.