hauteur

English

Etymology

From French hauteur.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /oʊˈtɝ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɔːˈtɜː/, /əʊˈtɜː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
• Homophone: auteur

Noun

hauteur (countable and uncountable, plural hauteurs)

1. Haughtiness or arrogance; loftiness.
   • 1842, Alexander Campbell, “Kickable People”, in Sketches of Life and Character‎^[1], page 11:

     Who ever went into a public office, and was treated, as he is very apt to be, with the most offensive hauteur by some saucy, well-paid official, without feeling the desire to kick him rising strong within him?

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     “What's happened, young Herring?” I think for a moment he was about to draw himself up with hauteur and say he would prefer, if we didn't mind, not to discuss his private affairs, but when he was half-way up he caught Aunt Dahlia's eye and returned to position one.

   • 1992, Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 31

     [A]n angered motorist sounded his horn, but The Senator took no heed: not out of arrogance or hauteur but, simply, because he took no heed.

   • 1997, David Foster Wallace, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:

     I imagine the Dreamward’s Hotel Manager to be an avuncular Norwegian with a rag sweater and a soothing odor of Borkum Rif about him, a guy w/o sunglasses or hauteur […]

   • 2014 May 28, John McWhorter, “Saint Maya”, in The New Republic‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Sometimes the hauteur is nothing more dire than a kind of black-mother wit.

Further reading

• “hauteur”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “hauteur, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “hauteur”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “hauteur”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “hauteur” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.

French

Etymology

From haut +‎ -eur.

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /o.tœʁ/

• Audio (Paris); “la hauteur”:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -œʁ
• Homophones: auteur, auteurs, hauteurs

Noun

hauteur f (plural hauteurs)

1. height, altitude

   La hauteur du Mont Everest est de 8.848 mètres.

   The height of Mount Everest is 8,848 meters.

2. arrogance
3. (geometry) height

   La hauteur d’un parallélogramme est perpendiculaire à sa base.

   The height of a parallelogram is perpendicular to its base.

4. (music) pitch

Derived terms

• à hauteur de
• à la hauteur de
• être à la hauteur
• hauteur de vanité
• prendre de la hauteur
• saut en hauteur
• sauteur en hauteur

Related terms

• haut

Further reading

• “hauteur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.