What is the difference between "Height" and "Summit"?
Tell me more
×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for
linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
Height is a measurement of vertical extent. My height is under 2 meters. A summit is the top of a mountain or hill. It is often used figuratively to mean best. Outside is used for the complement of any space with a boundary. Outskirts is mainly used for edges of towns. Did you have any specific questions that are not answered by the definitions in your dictionary? |
|||
|
|
|
"Summit" is a location. "Height" is a property. But, since this is English, there's lots of variations! "Summit" can also be a verb: "Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Everest on 29 May 1953", and "The Brooklyn Bridge connects Brooklyn Heights to downtown Manhattan". "Outside" is a comparator (vs. "inside" e.g. "Go outside, you've watched too much TV already."), and "outskirts" is an area adjacent to, but on or just past the edge of a location ("Ikea and the other big block stores are on the outskirts of town"). |
|||
|
|
|
I want to disagree with both answers. In addition to a measurement, the height also be a locations. Both words can also be metaphorical. In my American Heritage dictionary, we have for the third definition of "height"
Oxford Learner's Dictionary gives "the height of his career" as an example of this usage. For "summit" we have
This can also be metaphorical, Cambridge Learner's Dictionary gives "the summit of his career" as an example. So, in this sense, the words are synonyms. When used for a physical high location the phrase is usually "the heights" or "a height", and it does not necessarily mean the uppermost point, but a high point or points, whereas "the summit" means the uppermost point. |
||||
|
|
