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Altitude vs Zenith - What's the difference?

altitude | zenith |

As nouns the difference between altitude and zenith

is that altitude is the absolute height of a location, usually measured from sea level while zenith is zenith.

altitude

Noun

(en noun)
  • The absolute height of a location, usually measured from sea level.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes , there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.}}
  • A vertical distance.
  • (geometry) The distance measured perpendicularly from a figure's vertex to the opposite side of the vertex.
  • (astronomy) The angular distance of a heavenly body above our Earth's horizon.
  • Height of rank or excellence; superiority.
  • (Jonathan Swift)
  • (dated, in the plural) Elevation of spirits; heroics; haughty airs.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • The man of law began to get into his altitudes .
    (Richardson)
  • Highest point or degree.
  • * Shakespeare
  • He is [proud] even to the altitude of his virtue.

    Anagrams

    * latitude ----

    zenith

    English

    (wikipedia zenith)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (astronomy) The point in the sky vertically above a given position or observer; the point in the celestial sphere opposite the nadir.
  • * 1638 Herbert, Sir Thomas Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique
  • The 12 day wee had the wind high and large ?o that in two dayes ?aile we made the Sunne our Zenith or verticall point...
  • * 1671–1693 : Rev. Thomas Jolly, private notebook ; printed in:
  • * 1895 , Henry Fishwick (editor), The Note Book of the Rev. Thomas Jolly: A.D. 1671–1693. Extracts from the Church Books of Altham and Wymondhouses, 1649–1725. And an Account of the Jolly Family of Standish, Gorton, and Altham , page 44
  • In this 10th m. appeared that prodigious Comett the tayl whereof was like the blade of a double edged sword, and reached almost from the horizon to the zenith .
  • (astronomy) The highest point in the sky reached by a celestial body.
  • * 1719-
  • ...in the middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith , the violence of the heat was too great to stir out...
  • * 1920 , , The Understanding Heart , Chapter II:
  • As far to the west as Monica could see, her world was a sea of fog, , the fog gradually took on a bluish tinge.
  • Highest point or state; peak.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I find my zenith doth depend upon / A most auspicious star.
  • * Macaulay
  • It was during those civil troubles this aspiring family reached the zenith .
  • * {{quote-book
  • , page=173 , year=1900 , author=William Beckford , title=The History of the Caliph Vathek citation , passage="There for a while I enjoyed myself in the zenith of glory and pleasure."}}

    Derived terms

    * zenithal * zenithally

    Synonyms

    * (highest point or state) acme, apogee, culmination, pinnacle * See also

    Antonyms

    * nadir * perigee