altitudes

Noun

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

See all 10 meanings of altitude