Highness

See also: highness

English

Etymology

Calque of Italian altezza, from Late Latin altitia, from altus +‎ -itia, equivalent to high +‎ -ness. See highness for formation of the English term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaɪ.nəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

Highness (plural Highnesses)

1. The style of a prince, princess or someone of equivalent rank.
2. (obsolete) The style of an emperor or king.

Usage notes

• (both senses): The style is typically used with a possessive pronoun: Your Highness, Their Highnesses, et al.

Synonyms

• (obsolete: style of emperor or king): Majesty (current)

Derived terms

• HRH
• Imperial Highness
• Royal Highness
• Your Serene Highness

Translations

form of address

• Arabic: سُمُوّ (ar) m (sumuww), سُمُوَّة f (sumuwwa)
• Belarusian: высо́касць f (vysókascʹ)
• Bulgarian: висо́чество n (visóčestvo)
• Catalan: altesa
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 殿下 (zh) (diànxià), 閣下 / 阁下 (zh) (géxià)

• Czech: výsost f
• Danish: højhed c
• Dutch: hoogheid (nl) f
• Erzya: сэрейчи (sërejči)
• Esperanto: moŝto (eo), alteco
• Finnish: ylhäisyys (fi)
• French: altesse (fr) f
• German: Hoheit (de) f
• Greek: Υψηλότατος (el) m (Ypsilótatos), Υψηλοτάτη (el) f (Ypsilotáti)
• Italian: altezza (it) f
• Japanese: 殿下 (ja) (でんか, denka)
• Korean: 전하(殿下) (ko) (jeonha)
• Latvian: augstība f
• Macedonian: висо́чество n (visóčestvo)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: høyhet m or f

• Polish: wysokość (pl) f
• Portuguese: alteza (pt) f
• Romanian: alteță (ro) f
• Russian: высо́чество (ru) n (vysóčestvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: височа̀нство n

  Latin: visočànstvo (sh) n

• Slovak: výsosť f
• Slovene: visočanstvo n
• Spanish: alteza (es) f
• Ukrainian: висо́кість (uk) f (vysókistʹ)
• Welsh: Uchelder m