tall

From Middle English tall, talle, tal (“seemly, becoming, handsome, good-looking, excellent, good, valiant, lively in speech, bold, great, large, big”), from Old English *tæl, ġetæl (“swift, ready, having mastery of”), from Proto-Germanic *talaz (“submissive, pliable, obedient”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol-, *del- (“to aim, calculate, adjust, reckon”).

Cognate with Scots tal (“high, lofty, tall”), Old Frisian tel (“swift”), Old Saxon gital (“quick”), Old High German gizal (“active, agile”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃 (untals, “indocile, disobedient”).

The Oxford English Dictionary notes: "The sense development [of tall] is remarkable, but is paralleled more or less by that of other adjectives expressing estimation, such as buxom, canny, clean, clever, cunning, deft, elegant, handsome, pretty, proper; German klein, as compared with English clean, presents the antithesis to modern tall as compared to tall in early Middle English. It has been conjectured that in the sense 'high of stature' it is a different word, adopted from the Welsh tal in some sense; but the latter is, according to Professor Rhŷs, merely a 16th-century borrowing of the English word (in Owen Pughe's Dictionary erroneously mixed up with the genuine Welsh word tal (“end, brow, forehead”), with which it has no possible connection.)"^[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɔːl/, [tʰoːɫ]

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɔl/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /tɑl/

• Audio (US, cot–caught merger):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːl

tall (comparative taller, superlative tallest)

1. (of a person) Having a vertical extent greater than the average. For example, somebody with a height of over 6 feet would generally be considered to be tall.

   Antonym: short

   Being tall is an advantage in basketball.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, […] , and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

   • 2000, Robert Bingham, Lightning on the Sun, page 34:

     He′d been packed in with all the other journos, standing out only in that he was taller than most and didn′t make as much noise.

2. (of a building, etc.) Having its top a long way up; having a great vertical (and often greater than horizontal) extent.

   Synonym: (less common) high

   Antonyms: low, low-rise, short

   Tall trees, at least about 30m high.

   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 55:

     To him it seemed that the Bornean rainforests, the tallest on Earth, were places that had: 'remained untouched and unchanged since remote geological epochs[.]'

3. (of a story) Hard to believe, such as a tall story or a tall tale.
   • 1870, The Cornhill Magazine, volume 21, page 9:

     "That's tall talk."
     "Not an inch taller than the truth."

5. (chiefly US, of a cup of coffee) Smaller than grande, usually 8 ounces (~ 230 ml).

   Coordinate terms: grande, venti

6. (obsolete) Obsequious; obedient.
7. (obsolete) Seemly; suitable; fitting, becoming, comely; attractive, handsome.
8. (obsolete) Bold; brave; courageous; valiant.
9. (archaic) Fine; proper; admirable; great; excellent.

• → Welsh: tal

tall (plural talls)

1. (possibly nonstandard) Someone or something that is tall.
   • 1912, George Francis Atkinson, Botany for High Schools, Henry Holt and Company:

     But in the second generation of hybrids (from seed of the first) talls and dwarfs were both present, and in the proportion of twelve talls to four dwarfs.

   • 2009, Arianne Cohen, The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High, page 197:

     The industries that best accommodate talls are those that have faced personal injury lawsuits.

   • 2018 June 5, Chris Robinson, “Fremantle Dockers defender Alex Pearce faces fitness test on injured ankle”, in The West Australian‎^[1]:

     Fremantle remains unsure about the status a pair of key talls ahead of a defining clash with Adelaide at Optus Stadium.

2. A clothing size for taller people.

   Do you have this in a tall?

3. A tall serving of a drink, especially one from Starbucks, which contains 12 ounces.

• “tall”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

From Proto-Albanian *talna, related to Lithuanian ti̇̀lti (“to become silent”), Old Irish tuilid (“to sleep”), Proto-Slavic *toliti (“to persuade, to make quiet”).^[1]

tall (aorist talla, participle tallur) (transitive)

1. to ridicule, mock
2. to deride, laugh at

• tallje

• tallo

Deverbal from tallar.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaʎ/
• Syllabification: tall
• Rhymes: -aʎ

tall m

1. cut, slice
2. cutting edge
3. cutaway (of a guitar)
4. (golf) cut

• Diccionario ortografico de l'aragonés (Seguntes la PO de l'EFA)

tall

1. hard mutation of dall

Deverbal from tallar.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈtaʎ]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʎ

tall m (plural talls)

1. cutting edge
2. edge (of a page)
3. cut, slice
4. cutaway (of a guitar)
5. (golf) cut

• “tall” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

tall (genitive talle, partitive talle)

1. lamb

Declension of tall (ÕS type 22i/külm, length gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		tall	talled
accusative	nom.
	gen.	talle
genitive			tallede
partitive		talle	talli tallesid
illative		talle tallesse	talledesse tallisse
inessive		talles	talledes tallis
elative		tallest	talledest tallist
allative		tallele	talledele tallile
adessive		tallel	talledel tallil
ablative		tallelt	talledelt tallilt
translative		talleks	talledeks talliks
terminative		talleni	talledeni
essive		tallena	talledena
abessive		talleta	talledeta
comitative		tallega	talledega

Note: the short plural forms from illative onward are almost never used.

tall (genitive talli, partitive talli)

1. horse stable

Declension of tall (ÕS type 22e/riik, length gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		tall	tallid
accusative	nom.
	gen.	talli
genitive			tallide
partitive		talli	talle tallisid
illative		talli tallisse	tallidesse tallesse
inessive		tallis	tallides talles
elative		tallist	tallidest tallest
allative		tallile	tallidele tallele
adessive		tallil	tallidel tallel
ablative		tallilt	tallidelt tallelt
translative		talliks	tallideks talleks
terminative		tallini	tallideni
essive		tallina	tallidena
abessive		tallita	tallideta
comitative		talliga	tallidega

From English tall.

• IPA^(key): /tɑːɫ/, /tɑː.o/

tall

1. big

tall

1. To a great extent

   example: sway tall ("swear extensively and fervently")

• De Nyew Testament‎^[2], Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc., 2025

From Old Norse tal (“talk, speech, number”), from Proto-Germanic *talą (“number, speech”).

tall n (definite singular tallet, indefinite plural tall, definite plural talla or tallene)

1. number, numeral, figure

• tal (Nynorsk)

• “tall” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

tall f (definite singular talla or talli, indefinite plural taller, definite plural tallene)

1. (pre-2012) alternative form of toll

tall

1. there

   Is bec ndi dechur fil etarru siu ⁊ tall. ― There is little difference between them here and there.

2. then

   amal du·ratsat sacaird tall bendachta forsin popul ― as the priests had blessed the people then

• Irish: thall
• Manx: hoal
• Scottish Gaelic: thall

tall

1. that (used after the noun, which is preceded by the definite article)

   a tadall tall ― that visit

• sin

From Old Norse þǫll. Cognate with Jamtish toll, Icelandic þöll.

• IPA^(key): /tal/

• Audio:

  (file)

tall c

1. pine, Scots pine tree, Pinus sylvestris

• fura
• fur (uncountable)

• tallbarr (“pine needle”)
• tallkotte (“pine cone”)
• tallväxter

• barrväxter
• björk (“birch”)
• furu (“pine wood”)
• furutimmer
• furuträ
• falla som en fura
• gran (“spruce”)

• tall in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tall in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tall in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• allt

tall

1. musk daisy-bush (Olearia argophylla)^[1]