Vertical

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈvɜː.tɪ.kəl/

Definitions

1. Standing upright or extending straight up and down at a right angle to the horizon
2. Extending in a direction that is upright and perpendicular to the ground or to any horizontal surface is defined as being upright or straight up and down
3. Extending in an upright position or direction that is perpendicular to the horizontal plane defines something as being straight up and down

Etymology: "Vertical" is a word that once described a single point rather than a direction. Its Latin ancestor "vertex" meant the crown of the head or the highest point of something, and it came from "vertere", "to turn". The idea behind it was the pivot: the spot a thing turns around, which is also the top of the sky as the heavens seem to rotate overhead. From that sense of a turning point at the top came the Late Latin "verticalis", meaning of or at the zenith, and the English word took its present sense of straight up and down from that overhead line. The word reached English by way of Middle French "vertical", which was itself borrowed from Late Latin "verticalis". Its spelling and shape are therefore French-filtered Latin, and the surprise is that its core meaning is about the highest point rather than about the direction a line runs.

Synonyms: upright, perpendicular, erect, upstanding, plumb

Antonyms: horizontal, flat, level