summit
The topmost point or surface of a thing; the apex, the peak.
Noun
- The topmost point or surface of a thing; the apex, the peak.
- In summer, it is possible to hike to the summit of Mount Shasta.
- How can I crawl up to reach those heights / And run? / The venom is what keeps me alive / The venom is what keeps me alive / Up to the summit at night / Desperate to find that beating heart of mine that always makes me...
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The highest point of a hill, mountain, or similar geographical feature.
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(mathematics) A vertex of a polygon or polyhedron.
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(nautical, rail transport, road transport) The highest point of a canal, railway, road, etc.
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(obsolete) (botany) Synonym of anther (“the pollen-bearing part of the stamen of a flower”) or (rare) stigma (“the sticky part of a flower that receives pollen during pollination”).
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(obsolete) (crystallography, rare) One of the two vertices of a crystal with a rhombohedral shape where the angles of each face are equal; also, the highest point of a crystal with a pyramidal or tetrahedral shape.
- The highest point of achievement, development, etc., that can be reached; the acme, the pinnacle.
- Learning from others as from himself, he reached the summit of his development with his latest work. - 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VI. Orestea. I: Agamemnon”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 153:
- The highest level of political leadership.
- An assembly or gathering of the leaders of countries to discuss issues of international significance; also (loosely), an important or high-level gathering or meeting.
- They met for an international summit on environmental issues.
Origin
PIE word *upó The noun is derived from Late Middle English somet, somete (“head, top”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman sumet and Middle French sommet (masculine), somete, sommette (“top of a thing; highest point of a mountain”) (feminine) (modern French sommet), from Old French somet, sommette, from som, sum (“highest point, summit”) + -et (suffix forming diminutive masculine nouns), -ete, -ette (suffix forming diminutive feminine nouns). Som, sum are derived from Latin summum (“top, summit”), a noun use of the neuter of summus (“greatest, highest; top, uppermost”, adjective) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upér (“over”) + *-m̥mos, *-tm̥mos (“suffix forming superlative adjectives”)). The modern English spelling was influenced by summity (“height or top of a thing; utmost degree, perfection”) (obsolete). The verb is derived from the noun.
Forms
Synonyms
apex apogee crest crown culmen fastigium height peak pinnacle ridge roof summit top vertex zenith
Antonyms
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
aphelion apoapsis apolune high-water mark hilltop mountaintop
Related
Derived
blind summit false summit Lee's Summit minisummit presummit subsummit summital Summit County summit disease summited summiteer summiter summit fever summit-hop summit-hopper summitless summitry summit tunnel Summitville
Pronoun
- Alternative spelling of summat (“something”).
- I need to get summit to eat.
Origin
A variant of summat.
Verb
- To reach the summit (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1.1) of (a mountain).
- Of the range's 12 peaks, Mount Saskatchewan is the only one that has yet to be summited. - 2012 July–August, Kenza Moller, “Eyes on the North”, in Canadian Geographic, volume 132, number 4, Ottawa: Royal Canadian...
- To reach the summit of a mountain.
- To attend a summit (noun etymology 1, noun sense 2.2.2).
- If the Soviet leaders could go on summiting with the US while bombs poured on North Vietnam and yet claim that they had nothing but the best interests of the Vietnamese revolution in mind, there seems precious little...
- […] what the North Vietnamese would do while Richard Nixon was summiting in Moscow. […] - 1972, Newsweek, volume 79, page 51:
- The young President [JFK], who is on the eve of summiting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, is ensconced at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, preparing to fly to Vienna with his wife, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, to meet...