HIGHNESS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Highness mean? 

• HIGHNESS (noun)
  The noun HIGHNESS has 3 senses:

1. (Your Highness or His Highness or Her Highness) title used to address a royal person

2. the quality of being high or lofty

3. a high degree (of amount or force etc.)

  Familiarity information: HIGHNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HIGHNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(Your Highness or His Highness or Her Highness) title used to address a royal person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Highness" is a kind of...):

aristocrat; blue blood; patrician (a member of the aristocracy)

Holonyms ("Highness" is a member of...):

royal family; royal house; royal line; royalty (royal persons collectively)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being high or lofty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

highness; loftiness

Hypernyms ("highness" is a kind of...):

height; tallness (the vertical dimension of extension; distance from the base of something to the top)

Antonym:

lowness (the quality of being low; lacking height)

Derivation:

high ((literal meaning) being at or having a relatively great or specific elevation or upward extension (sometimes used in combinations like 'knee-high'))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A high degree (of amount or force etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

responsible for the highness of the rates

Hypernyms ("highness" is a kind of...):

degree; grade; level (a position on a scale of intensity or amount or quality)

Derivation:

high (greater than normal in degree or intensity or amount)

high (standing above others in quality or position)

 Context examples 

The subjective property of a tone, determined by the frequency of the wave that produces it, that is perceived as highness or lowness.

(Pitch, NCI Thesaurus)

“His Royal Highness—that is, the Earl of Chester—would be glad to hear the end of your story, Buckhorse,” said my uncle, to whom the Prince had been whispering.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Well, would you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry your Highness to the police-station?”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I stayed till sunset, but humbly desired his highness to excuse me for not accepting his invitation of lodging in the palace.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This last came to him as a surprise; it was tremendously indicative of the highness of their caste, of the enormous distance that stretched between her and him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I was not new to violent death—I have served his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, and got a wound myself at Fontenoy—but I know my pulse went dot and carry one.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I wouldn’t have intruded, your Royal Highness, but I must have the money—or even a thousand on account would do.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I made my humble acknowledgments to his highness for so great a favour.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I can vouch to having heard your Highness tell the story.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When we arrived at the island, which was about eleven in the morning, one of the gentlemen who accompanied me went to the governor, and desired admittance for a stranger, who came on purpose to have the honour of attending on his highness.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)