Home › Glossary › Letter S

Sky high

Idiomatic Phrase
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Extremely high in position, price, or emotional state; suggests reaching skyward heights, applied to soaring costs, elevated moods, ambitious goals, or exceptional achievements.

Detailed Definition
Sky high means extremely high in amount, intensity, ambition, price, emotion, or elevation. In poetry, the idiom connects excess with vertical space: hopes, costs, spirits, smoke, towers, or praise may rise sky high. It can suggest exhilaration, inflation, danger, or absurd overreach. A poet may use it in social critique for prices and ambition, or lyrically for joy and aspiration. The phrase is useful because height can imply both glory and distance from earthly limits.
Example
Example in poetry:
A city poem might say rents have climbed sky high above the chimneys of the poor; In a love lyric, the speaker's hopes rise sky high after one tender glance; The phrase means extremely high; A poet can use it for prices, hopes, towers, pride, or ambition.
Additional Notes
Sky high means extremely high in price, degree, emotion, or elevation. In poetry, it can describe hopes, costs, anger, towers, ambition, intoxication, or joy. The upward image gives the phrase expansive energy, but it can also imply excess beyond control. Students should ask whether height is glorious or dangerous. It pairs well with kites, smoke, towers, birds, stars, and economic language when prices or expectations rise beyond reach.
Also Known As
very high
Skip to main content