Lofty

How to spell lofty

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lofty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lofty mean?

1. adjectiveRising to a great height; very tall.
2. adjectiveGrand, noble, or elevated in character, thought, or ambition.
3. adjectiveHaughty or superior in manner, treating others as inferior.

Lofty in a sentence

• The cathedral has a lofty vaulted ceiling.

• The new mayor set out some lofty goals for the city.

• He gave the waiter a lofty glance and waved him away.

• Lofty pine trees lined the mountain road.

• Her lofty ideals about justice shaped the whole campaign.

• Her lofty tone made the junior staff feel unwelcome.

Where does lofty come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The word grows from the noun 'loft', which English took from the Old Norse 'lopt', meaning 'air', 'sky', or an upper room high under a roof. Norse settlers brought the word during the Viking age, and in early English a 'loft' was the high space beneath the rafters, the place nearest the sky. By the late 1400s writers attached the common adjective ending '-y' to make 'lofty', literally 'having great height'. From that plainly physical sense of towering tall, the meaning soon stretched in two figurative directions: grand and noble (lofty ideals reaching upward) and, less kindly, haughty (looking down on others from a height). The same Norse root for the high indoor space still survives in the everyday 'hayloft' and the architectural 'loft' apartment, so the simple 'loft + y' build is the easiest way to remember the spelling.

How the word is built

• loft (upper room, height; from Old Norse lopt 'air, sky')
• -y (adjective suffix)