Latitude

How to spell latitude

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce latitude

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does latitude mean?

1. nounThe angular distance of a place north or south of the equator, measured in degrees.
2. nounFreedom or scope to act, think, or decide as one chooses.

Latitude in a sentence

• London sits at a higher latitude than Rome.

• The new manager gave her team considerable latitude in setting their own deadlines.

• The ship's navigator recorded both latitude and longitude in the log.

• The contract allows the designer some latitude over the final colours.

Where does latitude come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin latitudo, meaning 'breadth' or 'width', which was built on the adjective latus, meaning 'wide' or 'broad'. English adopted it in the late fourteenth century, at first simply to mean width or extent. The geographical sense, the distance of a place north or south of the equator, arose because early maps were thought of as broader from north to south than the narrow strips that ran along them. From the idea of breadth came the figurative sense of room to act freely, which is why we still say someone is given latitude. The spelling keeps the Latin -tude ending, the same one found in 'gratitude' and 'altitude', so it helps to remember that the second vowel is an i, not an a.

How the word is built

• lat- (from Latin latus: wide, broad)
• -itude (noun suffix forming an abstract quality)