Tall

How to spell tall

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tall

What does tall mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a greater than average height, especially relative to width or to other people or objects.

Tall in a sentence

• The new bookshelf was too tall to fit under the window.

• The office sat behind a tall glass tower near the river.

Where does tall come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from Old English getael, which surprisingly did not mean 'high' at all but rather 'prompt', 'swift', or 'fitting'. In Middle English the spelling settled as tall and the meaning drifted, first toward 'handsome', 'fine', or 'brave', and only later toward the modern sense of great height. The shift from 'good' or 'valiant' to 'high in stature' happened gradually through the 1500s, perhaps because a fine, upstanding person was praised for their bearing. The word is purely Germanic in stock and shares distant kinship with Old High German gizal, meaning 'quick'. Its simple double-l spelling has stayed stable for centuries, which is why it is one of the easier words to render correctly.

How the word is built

• tall (a single Germanic root; no prefix or suffix)