湖边社【每日一詞】zenith- n. 頂峰；頂點；最高點
Definition: noun
1: the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the nadir and vertically above the observer
see azimuth illustration
2: the highest point reached in the heavens by a celestial body
3: culminating point : ACME
at the zenith of his powers —John Buchan
Did you know?
Reaching the Zenith
When you reach the zenith, you're at the top, the pinnacle, the summit, the peak. Zenith developed from an Arabic phrase meaning "the way over one's head," and then traveled through Old Spanish, Medieval Latin, and Middle French before arriving in English. As long ago as the 1300s, English speakers used zenith to name the highest point in the celestial heavens, directly overhead. By the 1600s, zenith was being used for other high points as well. The celestial term is often contrasted with nadir, which refers to the point that is vertically downward from the observer (imagine a line going through the Earth from the observer's feet and out the other side into the sky). Figuratively, nadir simply means "the lowest point."
Examples of zenith in a Sentence
1 at the zenith of her career as a dancer.
2 Baklava’s reputation as a dish of importance also meant that it was spread far and wide by bureaucrats along trade routes and pilgrimages during the zenith of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.
—John Moretti, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Aug. 2023
3 Such an efflorescence of freedom marked the zenith of liberalism in 1848.
—James Robins, The New Republic, 8 Aug. 2023
4 Its zenith doesn’t teeter north or south but sits patiently at the Tropic of Cancer before switching directions and heading south again.
—Melissa Breyer, Treehugger, 19 June 2023