eminence

/ˈɛmənəns/

Other forms: eminences

Eminence is superior status. If you become a world famous actor, the folks in your home town might treat you as an eminence when you come home for Thanksgiving. Just don't expect your family to do the same.

Eminence traces back to the Latin adjective ēminēntia, meaning high or lofty. We don't usually use it for mountain tops, however; it's social loftiness that scores eminence. Some special people are addressed as "your eminence," in the same way you'd call a judge "your honor." You can attain eminence or be an eminence. If you become a physical therapist, you might work with another kind of eminence: the high bit protruding from a bone where tendons or ligaments attach.

Definitions of eminence

1. noun

   high status importance owing to marked superiority
   “a scholar of great eminence”

   synonyms: distinction, note, preeminence

   types:

   king

   preeminence in a particular category or group or field

   type of:

   high status

   a position of superior status
2. noun

   a raised or elevated geological formation
   synonyms: elevation, natural elevation

   types:

   highland, upland

   elevated (e.g., mountainous) land

   hill

   a local and well-defined elevation of the land

   mount, mountain

   a land mass that projects well above its surroundings; higher than a hill

   foreland, head, headland, promontory

   a natural elevation (especially a rocky one that juts out into the sea)

   ridge

   a long narrow natural elevation or striation

   swell

   a rounded elevation (especially one on an ocean floor)

   alp

   any high mountain

   bank

   a long ridge or pile

   bar

   a submerged (or partly submerged) ridge in a river or along a shore

   ben

   a mountain or tall hill

   butte

   a hill that rises abruptly from the surrounding region; has a flat top and sloping sides

   down

   (usually plural) a rolling treeless highland with little soil

   dune, sand dune

   a ridge of sand created by the wind; found in deserts or near lakes and oceans

   esker

   (geology) a long winding ridge of post glacial gravel and other sediment; deposited by meltwater from glaciers or ice sheets

   foothill

   a relatively low hill on the lower slope of a mountain

   hammock, hillock, hummock, knoll, mound

   a small natural hill

   ledge, shelf

   a projecting ridge on a mountain or submerged under water

   mull

   a term used in Scottish names of promontories

   point

   a promontory extending out into a large body of water

   reef

   a submerged ridge of rock or coral near the surface of the water

   ripple mark

   one of a series of small ridges produced in sand by water currents or by wind

   seamount

   an underwater mountain rising above the ocean floor

   plateau, tableland

   a relatively flat raised area of land

   tor

   a high rocky hill

   volcano

   a mountain formed by volcanic material

   type of:

   formation, geological formation

   (geology) the geological features of the earth
3. noun

   a protuberance on a bone especially for attachment of a muscle or ligament
   synonyms: tubercle, tuberosity

   types:

   deltoid eminence, deltoid tuberosity

   a bump on the outside of the humerus where the deltoid muscle attaches

   type of:

   appendage, outgrowth, process

   a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an organism either animal or plant