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.
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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:
"Race against time" says the i Paper, next to a photo of a French firefighter standing in front of a burning row of trees and tall grass.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Cooper described one of the other men as a bald Black man, approximately 5 feet 9 inches or 5 feet 10 inches tall, with light-brown or hazel eyes and a blue patterned crew-neck shirt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
He put sheep in his fields when the grass was tall so they would clear away the vegetation, he said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
James would join a roster that already includes charismatic star Anthony Edwards, French tall man Rudy Gobert, and erratic shooting machine LaMelo Ball.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
His voice echoes absurdly off the tall stacks, and he ends up covering his mouth and lowering his voice.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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
When you stand next to Linda, she is actually taller than you would expect from seeing her on television, as she stands at 5ft 10in.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 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
Aguirre removed Quiñones in favor or taller options, but Mexico never recovered from the loss of offensive creativity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
The taller of the two has long locs, while the stumpy one has cornrows with colorful threads braided into them.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
The death of Sulemana Abdul Samed, Ghana's tallest man, has prompted an outpouring of grief especially in the north of the country where his height had made him a local celebrity.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
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
But the tallest and the strongest and the scariest girl in all of the fifth grade was also the fastest, and easily caught up.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
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.
