tall
Americanadjective
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having a relatively great height; of more than average stature: tall grass.
a tall woman;
tall grass.
- Antonyms:
- short
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having stature or height as specified.
a man six feet tall.
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large in amount or degree; considerable.
a tall price;
Swinging that deal is a tall order.
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extravagant; difficult to believe.
a tall tale.
-
He engages in so much tall talk, one never really knows what he's saying.
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having more than usual length; long and relatively narrow.
He carried a tall walking stick.
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(of a drink) consisting of liquor mixed with other ingredients and served in a large glass, as a cocktail.
We watched as he put together a Mamie Taylor, a tall drink with Scotch, ginger beer, and lime.
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Tall, (of beverages at Starbucks coffee shops) being of a small size equal to 12 ounces (354 milliliters).
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Archaic. valiant.
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Obsolete.
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seemly; proper.
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fine; handsome.
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adverb
noun
adjective
-
of more than average height
-
-
(postpositive) having a specified height
a woman five feet tall
-
( in combination )
a twenty-foot-tall partition
-
-
informal exaggerated or incredible
a tall story
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informal difficult to accomplish
a tall order
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an archaic word for excellent
Synonym Usage
See high.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of tall
First recorded before 1000; Middle English: “big, bold, comely, proper, ready,” Old English getæl (plural getale ) “quick, ready, competent”; cognate with Old High German gizal “quick”
Explanation
If you can easily slap the ceiling with the palm of your hand, you're tall. The measure of your height tells you exactly how tall you are. You don't have to be tall to be a good basketball player, but it can come in handy when you're trying to get the ball in the basket. When it's not describing a person's stature, the adjective tall might refer to a beverage, like a tall glass of lemonade. A tall tale is an outlandish, hard-to-believe story, and a tall order is a really unreasonable request. And when you stand tall, you act confidently.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But Rubio acknowledged it was a tall order for the country’s untested military.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Mama Margaretha and her atas and their children live together in several traditional houses, which look like tall witches' hats, ranged around her family's tombs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
"He was, I thought, quite handsome, he was tall, he was terribly well educated, and he knew a lot about a lot," said the 56-year-old.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
The early pages of “People Watching” weave Sonny’s perspective with brief sketches of her fellow resort-goers, which usually open with godlike authority: “Allana was ten feet tall and beautiful.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
“I’m not leaving here until I win one of those green lizards. Did you see it? The one with the row of spikes down its back, that’s as tall as me?”
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Not only is the eyepatch-wearing young woman taller, stronger and more aggressive than the Asa he once knew, she grew up with their parents in the modern world.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
The twins have a child each, Matías and Lucía, who do not have Laron syndrome and, at eight years old, are already taller than their mothers.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Visitors may have noticed that Odorysseus’ spadix — the conic protrusion emerging upward from the plant — was much taller than Odora’s, which had caved in.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
The towering stainless steel rocket, standing taller than a 30 story building, ignited all 33 of its engines and climbed into the sky.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
I’m taller than him now, but it still feels familiar.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
She had a blast and proudly reports that her team built the tallest pyramid, with her on top.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
The world's tallest unoccupied skyscraper was meant to boast a rooftop pool and a luxury hotel after completion, but instead it has stood deserted in the Chinese port city of Tianjin for years.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
The owner of the site, Los Angeles Cold Storage, agreed to reduce the height of its tallest planned tower from 44 stories to 30.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
He had previously been in the Guinness Book of Records along with his brother as the tallest twins in Britain.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
Mirrors show Dad, the tallest; me, the shortest.
From "Black Brother, Black Brother" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
