Stature

How to spell stature

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce stature

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does stature mean?

1. nounThe natural height of a person or animal when standing.
2. nounThe level of respect or importance a person or institution has earned.

Stature in a sentence

• The jockey was slight in build and short in stature.

• The award confirmed her growing stature as a scientist.

• His imposing stature made him easy to spot in any crowd.

• A leader of his stature rarely needs to raise his voice.

Where does stature come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin statura, meaning 'height' or 'the natural size of a standing body', which was built on the verb stare, 'to stand'. English took it through Old French as stature in the 1200s, originally to describe a person's physical height when standing upright. Over the following centuries the meaning broadened from bodily height to a more abstract notion of someone's standing or reputation in the eyes of others. The very same stare root sits inside a crowd of relatives, including 'statue', 'status', 'station' and 'statute', and that family resemblance is exactly why stature is so easily muddled with the law-word statute and the carved figure statue. Remembering that all of them are about standing, and that stature ends in the abstract -ure, helps keep the spelling straight.

How the word is built

• stat- (from Latin stare: to stand)
• -ure (noun suffix forming an abstract noun)