summit

See also: Summit

English

WOTD – 31 July 2024

Etymology 1

PIE word
*upó

The noun is derived from Late Middle English somet, somete (“head, top”) [and other forms],[1] 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)[2] (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).[3]

The verb is derived from the noun.[4]

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sŭmʹĭt, IPA(key): /ˈsʌmɪt/
  • (General American, Australia) enPR: sŭmʹət, IPA(key): /ˈsʌmət/
  • Audio (General American):(file)
  • Homophone: summat (in some dialects)
  • Rhymes: -ʌmɪt
  • Hyphenation: sum‧mit

Noun

summit (plural summits)

  1. The topmost point or surface of a thing; the apex, the peak.
    Synonyms: acme, (obsolete) summity, zenith; see also Thesaurus:summit
    2. The highest point of a hill, mountain, or similar geographical feature.
      In summer, it is possible to hike to the summit of Mount Shasta.
      • 2021 September 17, “The Summit”, in Eternal Blue, performed by Spiritbox, Portland, Or.: Rise Records, →OCLC:
        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 run
    3. (mathematics) A vertex of a polygon or polyhedron.
    4. (nautical, rail transport, road transport) The highest point of a canal, railway, road, etc.
    5. (obsolete)
      1. (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”).
      2. (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.
  2. (figurative)
    1. The highest point of achievement, development, etc., that can be reached; the acme, the pinnacle.
      • 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VI. Orestea. I: Agamemnon”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 153:
        Learning from others as from himself, he reached the summit of his development with his latest work.
    2. (politics)
      1. (archaic) The highest level of political leadership.
      3. (by extension) 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.
Usage notes

Colloquially, etymology 1, noun sense 1.1 is used for only the highest point of a mountain, whereas in mountaineering any point that is higher than surrounding points is a summit, such as the South Summit of Mount Everest. These are distinguished by topographic prominence as subsummits (low prominence) or independent summits (high prominence).

Derived terms
Descendants
  • → Italian: summit
  • → Romanian: summit
  • → Tatar: summit
  • → Serbo-Croatian:
    Latin script: samit
    Cyrillic script: самит
  • → Macedonian: самит (samit)
  • → Ukrainian: са́міт (sámit)
  • → Russian: саммит (sammit)
  • → Japanese: サミット
  • → Korean: 서밋 (seomit)
Translations

Verb

summit (third-person singular simple present summits, present participle summiting or summitting, simple past and past participle summited or summitted)

  1. (transitive, climbing, informal) To reach the summit (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1.1) of (a mountain).
  2. (intransitive, climbing, informal) To reach the summit of a mountain.
  3. (intransitive, politics) To attend a summit (noun etymology 1, noun sense 2.2.2).
    • 1969, Economic and Political Weekly, volume 4, numbers 14-26, page 645:
      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 reason to cry wolf at Peking-Bonn relations.
    • 1972, Newsweek, volume 79, page 51:
      […] what the North Vietnamese would do while Richard Nixon was summiting in Moscow. […]
    • 1998, David S. Nuttall, Mickey Mantle's Greatest Hits, page 152:
      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 with Khrushchev to discuss Cold War issues.
    • 2001, Robert V. Heffernan, Cabinetmakers: Story of the Three-year Battle to Establish the U.S. Department of Education, page 439:
      The President had been summiting with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in Vienna.
    • 2021, Mark LaVoie, Reagan’s Soviet Rhetoric: Telling the Soviet Redemption Story, page 92:
      From May 29 to June 3, 1988[,] Reagan and Gorbachev summited in Moscow. Expectations of the meeting were low, because Reagan's position as a "lame duck" president guaranteed that nothing new of historic import would occur.
Translations

Synonyms

Etymology 2

A variant of summat.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

summit

  1. (England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Alternative spelling of summat (“something”).
    I need to get summit to eat.

References

  1. ^ “somet, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “summit, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “summit, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
  4. ^ “summit, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “summit, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English summit.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsum.mit/, /ˈsam.mit/[1]
  • Rhymes: -ummit, -ammit
  • Hyphenation: sùm‧mit

Noun

summit m (invariable)

  1. summit (gathering of leaders)
    Synonyms: vertice, conferenza

References

  1. ^ “summit” in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Romanian

Alternative forms

Etymology

    Unadapted borrowing from English summit.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ˈsa.mit/
    • Rhymes: -amit
    • Hyphenation: sum‧mit

    Noun

    summit n (plural summituri)

    1. (politics) summit

    Declension

    singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative-accusative summit summitul summituri summiturile
    genitive-dative summit summitului summituri summiturilor
    vocative summitule summiturilor

    Further reading

    Swedish

    Verb

    summit

    1. supine of simma (strong inflection)

    Anagrams

    Tatar

    Etymology

    Borrowed from English summit.

    Noun

    summit

    1. nonstandard spelling of sammit (“summit”)
      • 2006 October 23, Kärim Kamal, “Tatarstannıñ Londondağı İnvestitsiälär Summitı”, in Azatlıq radiosı‎[1], archived from the original on 28 December 2025:
        İnvestitsiä Summitı maqsat itep Könbatışnıñ business dairäläre iğtibarın Tatarstan belän säwdä itüneñ nindi caylı wä uñay buluına cälep itüne quyğan ide.
        (please add an English translation of this quotation)
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