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語源

From 中期英語, borrowed from Latin altitūdō (“height”), from altus (“high”).

発音

• IPA: /ˈælt.ɪˌtjuːd/
• (yod-coalescence) IPA: /ˈælt.ɪˌt͡ʃuːd/
• (yod-dropping) IPA: /ˈælt.ɪˌtuːd/

名詞

altitude (countable and uncountable, plural altitudes)

1. The absolute height of a location, usually measured from sea level.

   As the altitude increases, the temperature gets lower, so remember to bring warm clothes to the mountains.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

   • 2018 November 23, Matthew Robinson, “Dimming the sun: The answer to global warming?”, in CNN‎:

     The technique would involve spraying large amounts of sulfate particles into the Earth’s lower stratosphere at altitudes as high as 12 miles. The scientists propose delivering the sulfates with specially designed high-altitude aircraft, balloons or large naval-style guns.

   • 2020 February 16, Francesca Street, “How changing aircraft altitude could cut flight’s climate impact”, in CNN‎:

     By changing the flying altitude by just couple of thousand feet on fewer than 2% of all scheduled flights, a study by a team of scientists at Imperial College London concludes that the damage to the climate caused by one consequence of aviation could be reduced by as much as 59%.

2. A vertical distance.
3. (geometry) The line perpendicularly connecting a figure’s vertex, especially a triangle’s apex, to the side opposite to the vertex.

   All three altitudes of any triangle will always meet at point known as the orthocentre or orthocenter.

4. (geometry) The length of such a line; the distance measured perpendicularly from a figure's vertex to the side opposite to the vertex.

   The perpendicular height of a triangle is known as its altitude.

5. (astronomy) The angular distance of a heavenly body above our Earth's horizon.
6. Height of rank or excellence; superiority.
   • 1704, [Jonathan Swift], A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC:

     Whoever has an ambition to be heard in a crowd, must press, and squeeze, and thrust, and climb, with indefatigable pains, till he has exalted himself to a certain degree of altitude above them.

7. (dated, in the plural) Elevation of spirits; heroics; haughty airs.
   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     The man of law began to get into his altitudes.

   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC:

     Is this deified passion , in its greatest altitudes , fitted to stand the day ?

8. Highest point or degree.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     He is [proud] even to the altitude of his virtue.

9. (commutative algebra, dated, of a ring) Krull dimension.
10. (commutative algebra, of an ideal) Height.

派生語

Further reading

• “altitude”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “altitude”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

アナグラム

• latitude