# Is heighth a word? If not, why do people say it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059 "2011-07-06T16:59:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/21 "2011-07-07T08:40:34Z")
> [@J\_Cubed](#): > > Teachers then try to teach us the proper way to use the words and grammar of **[Standard written English](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_written_English)**. This is the English that one expects to see in professionally published works, almost never sees in handwritten signs, and is harangued about by doddering old fools with newspaper columns on language. However, nobody ever speaks it conversationally, which is where most language happens. If you say it and the other guy understands it, it’s a word, irregardless of what your teacher says. > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > JBDivmstr, I can only repeat what I said. Copy editors and high school English teachers do not get to define what **language** is. They perhaps get to define what the current version of standard written (and perhaps spoken) English is. Saying that “heighth is not a word” or that nonstandard English is not a language is just confusing the ordinary definitions of these terms. Language is anything used by human beings in ordinary communication. Nonstandard versions of languages are not merely babbling or whatever language purists think it is. (Actually, it’s not clear to me what language purists think. Sometimes they act like anyone using nonstandard English (or whatever language they are trying to defend) is obviously stupid. Sometimes they act like anyone using nonstandard English is deliberately evil.) My apologies, sir. I think I may have been a little “nit picky”. ☹ I never meant to imply that “heighth” wasn’t a valid word, and I assure you, in everyday conversation, I mangle the hell out of the english language. (My high school english teachers are probably “rolling in their graves”, everytime I open my mouth! :D) > [@](#): > > Sometimes they act like anyone using nonstandard English (or whatever language they are trying to defend) is obviously stupid. Sometimes they act like anyone using nonstandard English is deliberately evil.) On this, I concur with you, 100%! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/22 "2011-07-07T08:52:50Z")
[QUOTE=JBDivmstr;13995501You seem to contradict yourself, sir. In the beginning of your post you imply with your “glacier analogy”, that teachers have \*\*\*no control \*\*\*over how we speak. And yet, you go on to state that teachers do indeed, “tell you what other people currently think to be correct”.[/QUOTE] There is no contradiction. You choose to think I implied something I didn’t. A boulder has an effect on a glacier, however small. Teachers have little control, not none. They tell you what other people currently think to be correct, but that doesn’t mean they have much effective control. People learn their language from listening and most of their listening is to parents, friends, television etc. They also learn it from what they read. Teacher contact hours and school imposed reading are but a drop in the bucket of total immersion by which people learn language. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/23 "2011-07-07T09:05:56Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > There is no contradiction. > > You choose to think I implied something I didn’t. A boulder has an effect on a glacier, however small. Teachers have little control, not none. They tell you what other people currently think to be correct, but that doesn’t mean they have much effective control. > > People learn their language from listening and most of their listening is to parents, friends, television etc. They also learn it from what they read. Teacher contact hours and school imposed reading are but a drop in the bucket of total immersion by which people learn language. My apologies, sir. I forgot my manners and broke the “assume” rule. 😉 One shouldn’t assume. By “assuming”, I made an “ass u me”! ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/24 "2011-07-08T04:55:18Z")
> [@JBDivmstr](#): > > IMHO the majority of people that learned “Standard written English” as their primary language, (the language that they first learned to speak) and that are fairly “literate” (ie: high school graduate level) _ **DO** _ “speak it conversationally” more often than not. > I will concede that there is a tremendous influence on our every day vocabulary due to numerous reasons, such as location, and the intellect and literacy of those that we interact with, most frequently. > By the way… Great cite on “Standard written English”!🙂 The point is that nobody except actors, news anchors, and politicians ever **speak** Standard written English. And they only do when someone has written a script for them, in that form of English. The rest of us speak American English or British English, or other regional dialects that are **spoken** languages. You learn spoken English from your parents and peers. You learn written English from books and grammar teachers. But the rules and expectations are different between them. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/25 "2011-07-08T05:04:21Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > It’s parallel to “warmth” and “coldth.” 😕Coldth?😕 I’ve never heard that one before. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/26 "2011-07-08T05:08:11Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > 😕Coldth?😕 I’ve never heard that one before. I think he meant “coolth” which is becoming accepted. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/27 "2011-07-08T05:19:11Z")
> [@J\_Cubed](#): > > The point is that nobody except actors, news anchors, and politicians ever **speak** Standard written English. And they only do when someone has written a script for them, in that form of English. The rest of us speak American English or British English, or other regional dialects that are **spoken** languages. You learn spoken English from your parents and peers. You learn written English from books and grammar teachers. But the rules and expectations are different between them. I highly disagree with this narrow-minded assessment of language. Someone who has been highly-even moderately-educated throughout their life will develop language skills as a symbiotic combination of written language AND spoken language. They do not exist seperately, a lifelong book-reader is going to have a much more expansive vocabulary in their spoken language; as a result of high levels of written language learning. And all those “grammar teachers” will teach a person how to form this spoken language in their heads before it’s spoken. Consider it the “mental written English” . To truly be able to use the language to the best of IT"S capabilities, even as it evolves as a spoken language, one must learn and know the written history of the language. (and no, people shouldn’t use that word. It’s akin to say “supposably”. Yeah, people say it, but so what?) ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/28 "2011-07-08T06:48:33Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > I highly disagree with this narrow-minded assessment of language. Someone who has been highly-even moderately-educated throughout their life will develop language skills as a symbiotic combination of written language AND spoken language. They do not exist seperately, a lifelong book-reader is going to have a much more expansive vocabulary in their spoken language; as a result of high levels of written language learning. And all those “grammar teachers” will teach a person how to form this spoken language in their heads before it’s spoken. Consider it the “mental written English”. You’ve “_beaten me to the punch_”, sir! And IMHO, quite eloquently, at that! 🙂 (And _ **way** _ more succintly, than I could, or would, have been!) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/29 "2011-07-08T12:39:07Z")
> [@J\_Cubed](#): > > If you say it and the other guy understands it, it’s a word, irregardless of what your teacher says. The point is well taken, but that was a low blow. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/30 "2011-07-08T13:21:44Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > I highly disagree with this narrow-minded assessment of language. Someone who has been highly-even moderately-educated throughout their life will develop language skills as a symbiotic combination of written language AND spoken language. They do not exist seperately, a lifelong book-reader is going to have a much more expansive vocabulary in their spoken language; as a result of high levels of written language learning. And all those “grammar teachers” will teach a person how to form this spoken language in their heads before it’s spoken. Consider it the “mental written English” . To truly be able to use the language to the best of IT"S capabilities, even as it evolves as a spoken language, one must learn and know the written history of the language. Its capabilities, not it’s. And I don’t know that anyone would disagree with you. Of course, you don’t need to be educated really at all to develop a language. Creoles are created by children who don’t know the difference between an aspect and a tense yet they manage to create them just fine. You have to remember that a language need not also have a writing system to be considered a language. There are plenty of minority languages that have no standardized way of writing them down and they still function as a language. It’s always a good thing to learn about things, not just your language, but remember that just because coolth isn’t a word today and wasn’t a word 200 years ago, doesn’t mean it can’t be a word next week. (And every word you use now was a nouveau addition to the language at some time.) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/31 "2011-07-08T16:05:44Z")
jamiemcgarry writes: \> To truly be able to use the language to the best of IT"S capabilities, even as it \> evolves as a spoken language, one must learn and know the written history of \> the language. I don’t know of any evidence that this is remotely true. In societies where most people were nonliterate (and sometimes where there was no written language at all), there were brilliant orators who never learned to read. They listened to other orators and learned their techniques. They didn’t learn anything about the history of the language, and they didn’t even read anything at all. There are lots of brilliant writers today who know almost nothing about the history of their languages, and they often have read very little older writings in their language. They simply read a lot of current writing in their language and imitated good models. Knowing the history of the language may be a good thing in itself, but it’s not in general the way to learn how to write well. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/32 "2011-07-08T16:14:42Z")
I think there is a difference. An airplane can fly at a height of ten thousand feet but it doesn’t have a heighth of ten thousand feet. But a building has a heighth - it spans the distance between the ground and its highest point. To me, heighth describes an object’s size - the equivalent of width and length. Whereas height describes an object’s location. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/33 "2011-07-08T16:45:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think there is a difference. An airplane can fly at a height of ten thousand feet but it doesn’t have a heighth of ten thousand feet. But a building has a heighth - it spans the distance between the ground and its highest point. To me, heighth describes an object’s size - the equivalent of width and length. Whereas height describes an object’s location. The object’s location is called altitude or elevation, not height. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/34 "2011-07-08T18:09:36Z")
> [@J\_Cubed](#): > > Teachers then try to teach us the proper way to use the words and grammar of **[Standard written English](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_written_English)**. This is the English that one expects to see in professionally published works, almost never sees in handwritten signs, and is harangued about by doddering old fools with newspaper columns on language. However, nobody ever speaks it conversationally, which is where most language happens. If you say it and the other guy understands it, it’s a word, irregardless of what your teacher says. I wonder what that teacher would have to say about “irregardless” there…:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/35 "2011-07-08T18:10:44Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > The object’s location is called altitude or elevation, not height. It can be but height’s a much more common term. ---
**Author:** ![Rob\_Van](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce7236/32.png) [@Rob\_Van](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rob_Van)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/36 "2011-07-08T19:49:29Z")
I got into an arguement with a high school senior english teacher that I was dating. I told her there was no such word! She also didnt know what an IUD was, and that was scary because she was also a counselor for senior girls. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/37 "2011-07-08T19:51:58Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Wow, this is too adorable. I’d love to be fooded by a nice lodge. Now that just sounds down right freaky…😃 ---
**Author:** ![9watts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/9/87869e/32.png) [@9watts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/9watts)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/38 "2015-01-29T06:19:40Z")
The pronunciation of _heighth_ isn’t really in question here, but all those other words, which lend some modicum of plausibility to the word heighth because they end in _th_: depth, width, length, have an audible consonant sound before the ‘th’. Therefore I would think this word-that-is-in-dispute should be spelled with two 't’s: heightth. Otherwise wouldn’t the word be pronounced _hi-th_? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/39 "2015-01-29T13:20:14Z")
I like the Urban Dictionary’s entry: > [@](#): > > Heighth > This is not a word, even though everyone in southern California uses it. The correct word is “Height.” Don’t combine width and height into heighth. That’s just wrong. I will stab you in the eye. > **[Urban Dictionary: Heighth](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Heighth)** > > This is not a word, even though everyone in southern California uses it. The correct word is "Height." Don't combine width and height into heighth. That's just wrong. I will stab you in the eye. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059/40 "2015-01-29T14:46:24Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > 😕Coldth?😕 I’ve never heard that one before. It was the rejected name for Hoth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heighth-a-word-if-not-why-do-people-say-it/588059.md?page=3)