high
pronunciation
How to pronounce high in British English:
UK [haɪ]
How to pronounce high in American English:
US [haɪ]
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- Noun:
- a lofty level or position or degree
- an air mass of higher than normal pressure
- a state of sustained elation
- a state of altered consciousness induced by alcohol or narcotics
- a high place
- a public secondary school usually including grades 9 through 12
- a forward gear with a gear ratio giving high vehicle velocity for a given engine speed
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- Adjective:
- greater than normal in degree or intensity or amount
- (literal meanings) being at or having a relatively great or specific elevation or upward extension (sometimes used in combinations like `knee-high')
- standing above others in quality or position
- used of sounds and voices; high in pitch or frequency
- happy and excited and energetic
- used of the smell of game beginning to taint
- slightly and pleasantly intoxicated from alcohol or a drug (especially marijuana)
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- Adverb:
- at a great altitude
- in or to a high position, amount, or degree
- in a rich manner
- far up toward the source
Word Origin
- high
- high: [OE] High is an ancient word. It goes right back to Indo-European *koukos, which is related to a number of terms denoting roughly ‘rounded protuberance’: Sanskrit kucas ‘breast’, for instance, Russian húcha ‘heap’, and Lithuanian kaukas ‘swelling, boil’. Evidently the notion of ‘tallness’, central to modern English high, is historically a secondary development from the notion of being ‘heaped up’ or ‘arched up’. The Germanic descendant of *koukos was *khaukhaz, which produced German hoch, Dutch hoog, Swedish hög, Danish hoj, and English high. Height is a derivative of *khaukh-.=> height
- high (adj.)
- Old English heh (Anglian), heah (West Saxon) "of great height, lofty, tall, exalted, high-class," from Proto-Germanic *haukhaz (cognates: Old Saxon hoh, Old Norse har, Danish høi, Swedish hög, Old Frisian hach, Dutch hoog, Old High German hoh, German hoch, Gothic hauhs "high;" also German Hügel "hill," Old Norse haugr "mound"), perhaps related to Lithuanian kaukara "hill." Spelling with -gh represents a final guttural sound in the original word, lost since 14c. Of sound pitch, late 14c. Of roads, "most frequented or important," c. 1200. Meaning "euphoric or exhilarated from alcohol" is first attested 1620s, of drugs, 1932. Sense of "proud, haughty, arrogant, supercilious" (c. 1200) is reflected in high hand (late 14c.) and high horse. High seas first attested late 14c., with sense (also found in the Latin cognate) of "deep" as well as "tall" (cognates: Old English heahflod "deep water," also Old Persian baršan "height, depth"). Of an evil or a punishment, "grave, serious, severe" (as in high treason), c. 1200 (Old English had heahsynn "deadly sin, crime"). High pressure (adj.) is from 1824, of engines, 1891, of weather systems, 1933, of sales pitches. A child's high chair is from 1848. High school "school for advanced studies" attested from late 15c. in Scotland; by 1824 in U.S. High time "fully time, the fullness of time," is from late 14c. High noon is from early 14c.; the sense is "full, total, complete." High and mighty is c. 1200 (heh i mahhte). High finance (1905) is that concerned with large sums. High and dry of beached things (especially ships) is from 1783. High-water mark is what is left by a flood or highest tide (1550s); figurative use by 1814.
- high (n.1)
- early 14c., "high point, top," from high (adj.). As "area of high barometric pressure," from 1878. As "highest recorded temperature" from 1926. Meaning "state of euphoria" is from 1953.
- high (n.2)
- "thought, understanding," obsolete from 13c. in English and also lost in Modern German, but once an important Germanic word, Old English hyge, cognate with Old Saxon hugi, Old High German hugi, Old Norse hygr, Swedish hög, Danish hu.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Lack of investment means freight costs are high .
- 2. Unemployment is at a record high .
- 3. Forward prices are also high .
- 4. Eat food and vegetables high in vitamin b-complex .
- 5. High officials in beijing with fujian connections were implicated .