depth

/dɛpθ/

/dɛpθ/

Other forms: depths

Depth is the measure of how deep something goes. The swimming pool has a depth of six feet. The well has an unknown depth. People can be deep as well—you know by looking at some people that they have depth.

Depth goes with other measure words that end in "th." Length is how long something is. Breadth is how wide or broad. The expression "plumb the depths" means to take a measure of how deep something goes. Depth also can mean deepness—your English teacher might instruct you to write papers with depth.

Definitions of depth

1. noun

   the extent downward or backward or inward
   “the depth of the water”

   “depth of a shelf”

   “depth of a closet”

   synonyms: deepness

   types:

   deepness, profoundness, profundity

   the quality of being physically deep

   draft, draught

   the depth of a vessel's keel below the surface (especially when loaded)

   penetration

   the depth to which something penetrates (especially the depth reached by a projectile that hits a target)

   sounding

   a measure of the depth of water taken with a sounding line

   shallowness

   the quality of lacking physical depth

   bottomlessness

   the property of being very deep; without limit

   superficiality

   shallowness in terms of affecting only surface layers of something

   type of:

   extent

   the distance or area or volume over which something extends
2. noun

   the intellectual ability to penetrate deeply into ideas
   synonyms: astuteness, deepness, profoundness, profundity

   type of:

   sapience, wisdom

   ability to apply knowledge or experience or understanding or common sense and insight
3. noun

   the attribute or quality of being deep, strong, or intense
   “the depth of his breathing”

   “"the depth of his sighs," "the depth of his emotion”

   type of:

   attribute

   an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity
4. noun

   degree of psychological or intellectual profundity
   types:

   profoundness, profundity

   intellectual depth; penetrating knowledge; keen insight; etc

   shallowness, superficiality

   lack of depth of knowledge or thought or feeling

   glibness, slickness

   a kind of fluent easy superficiality

   sciolism

   pretentious superficiality of knowledge

   type of:

   degree, grade, level

   a position on a scale of intensity or amount or quality
5. noun

   (usually plural) the deepest and most remote part
   “signals received from the depths of space”

   types:

   back of beyond

   a very remote and inaccessible place

   type of:

   part, region

   the extended spatial location of something
6. noun

   (usually plural) a low moral state
   type of:

   abasement, abjection, degradation

   a low or downcast state