Origin: before 900; Middle English; Old English hīehtho.See high, -th1
Can be confused:altitude, elevation, height (see synonym and usage notes at the current entry).
Synonyms 3. tallness. Height,altitude,elevation refer to distance above a level. Height denotes extent upward (as from foot to head) as well as any measurable distance above a given level: The tree grew to a height of ten feet. They looked down from a great height. Altitude usually refers to the distance, determined by instruments, above a given level, commonly mean sea level: altitude of an airplane. Elevation implies a distance to which something has been raised or uplifted above a level: a hill's elevation above the surrounding country, above sea level. 5. prominence. 6. peak, pinnacle; acme, zenith; culmination.
Antonyms 1, 2. depth.
Usage note Height, and not heighth, is considered the standard English form for this word.
O.E. hiehþu, Anglian hehþo "highest part or point, summit," from root of heah "high" + -itha Gmc. abstract noun suffix (cf. O.N. hæð, O.H.G. hohida, Goth. hauhiþa "height"). The modern pronunciation with -t not established till 18c., and heighth is still colloquial.