elevation

From Old French elevation, from Latin elevatio, equal to elevate +‎ -ion.

• IPA^(key): /ˌɛlɪˈveɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

elevation (countable and uncountable, plural elevations)

1. The act of raising from a lower place, condition, or quality to a higher; said of material things, persons, the mind, the voice, etc.

   elevation to a throne

   elevation to sainthood

   elevation of mind, thoughts, or character

2. The condition of being or feeling elevated; heightened; exaltation.
3. That which is raised up or elevated; an elevated place or station.
   • 1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 362:

     Since our sins caused God's presence to withdraw above the "seven heavens," we pray that our prayers may rise through the seven layers and reach the Almighty in the eighth elevation.

   A hill is an elevation of the ground.

4. (astronomy) The distance of a celestial object above the horizon, or the arc of a vertical circle intercepted between it and the horizon; altitude.

   the elevation of the pole, or of a star

5. The measured vertical distance from the peak of a mountain or hill to its bordering lowlands.
6. The angle which the gnomon makes with the substylar line.
7. The movement of the axis of a piece in a vertical plane; also, the angle of elevation, that is, the angle between the axis of the piece and the line of sight; distinguished from direction.
8. (architecture) A geometrical projection of a building, or other object, on a plane perpendicular to the horizon; orthographic projection on a vertical plane; called by the ancients the orthography.
9. (Christianity, chiefly Roman Catholicism) The raising of the host—representing Christ’s body—in a mass or Holy Communion service.
10. (UK, obsolete, uncountable) An opium mixture used in the Fens to improve the mood and prevent malaria.
    • 1921, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, volume 10, page 49:

      […] many of the fen people used what they called "elevation." Farmer Porter was his informant concerning this habit. "What's elevation?" "Oh! ho! ho! — yow goo into druggist's shop o' market day into Cambridge, and you'll see the little boxes, doozens and doozens, a' ready on the counter; and never a ven-man's wife goo by, but what calls in for her pennord o' elevation, to last her out the week. […]

• disgust
• demotion
• depression
• diminishment
• reduction

• elevate
• elevator
• overelevation

• fasl
• masl

• (opium mixture): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary