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I'm trying to find a word that I've heard of that ends with -muth and has a meaning similar to apex or the very high point of something. I could have sworn that I've heard this word before. It is possible that it doesn't mean what I thought it means but I would like to know what it is regardless.

I looked up synonyms for apex here but the word I'm thinking of doesn't show up.

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    azimuth. :) is the word. But it is not the same meaning at all.
    – Lambie
    Jan 22, 2017 at 21:47
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    @Lambie What the..? That was the word but it totally didn't mean what I thought it meant. Anyways thanks a billion. That was driving me crazy. Jan 22, 2017 at 21:49
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    zenith might work for you if you want a th at the end.
    – Tom22
    Jan 22, 2017 at 21:54
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    Happens to me all the time. Looks like a duck, walks like a duck, but ain't no duck. :)
    – Lambie
    Jan 22, 2017 at 22:13
  • Well, it's not bismuth, so that leaves only one other possibility for words ending in -muth in English — and altazimuth doesn’t count as a compound. :)
    – tchrist
    Feb 9, 2017 at 2:05

1 Answer 1

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You're probably thinking of azimuth, but that's simply a direction at a particular angle.

The direction of a celestial object from the observer, expressed as the angular distance from the north or south point of the horizon to the point at which a vertical circle passing through the object intersects the horizon.

[ODO]

The highest point in the sky, similar to apex, is zenith.

The point in the sky or celestial sphere directly above an observer. The opposite of nadir.

[ODO]

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