Top

How to spell top

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce top

What does top mean?

1. nounThe highest point, surface, or part of something.
2. adjectiveHighest in position, rank, quality, or degree.
3. verbTo be greater than, to exceed, or to form the highest part of something.
4. nounA cone-shaped toy that spins rapidly on its pointed end.

Top in a sentence

• noun

  She left the keys on the top of the cupboard.

• adjective

  She finished as the top candidate in the interview round.

• verb

  Sales this quarter will easily top last year's figures.

• noun

  The child wound the string and set the wooden top spinning across the floor.

• noun

  A thin layer of frost covered the top of the car.

• adjective

  The firm hired a top accountant to review the books.

Where does top come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native word, descending from the Old English noun 'topp', which meant the highest point of something, but also a tuft or crest of hair. It belongs to a wider Germanic family that includes the Dutch 'top' and the German 'Zopf' (a braid or pigtail), all reaching back to a shared root for a pointed projection or a bunched-up end. The spinning toy called a 'top' is recorded from late Old English too, though it is uncertain whether it is the same word or a coincidental look-alike; the toy probably took its name from its tapering, pointed shape. Over the centuries the core sense of 'highest part' broadened into the figurative ideas of being best, foremost, or in charge, giving us phrases about the top of a class or the top of a company. The spelling has stayed reassuringly simple because the word never passed through French or Latin, so the doubled 'p' of the old form simply collapsed to the plain three-letter word we use today.

How the word is built

• top (from Old English topp: summit, tuft, crest); a single unanalysable root with no prefix or suffix