higher versus taller

Question

Which is correct and which is incorrect?
1. The Canton tower is higher than the CN tower.
2. The Canton tower is taller than the CN tower.
tallest building highest building
tallest mountain highest mountain
Cheers Fulvio

Philip · Accepted Answer

I refer to a building as tall (taller, tallest).  Oddly enough, however, I talk about a six-story-high building (give or take the hyphens).  That's just me.  We'll see if others have differing opinions.

Chipw · Answer

I generally see 'high' used to describe something above the ground level, and 'tall' as something that starts at ground level (with exceptions of course).

That building is taller than the others, how tall is it?. It's 250 feet high.
The plane fly's 30,000 feet high.
The ceiling is at least 12 feet high and the bookshelf also very tall, it reaches just up to the ceiling.

Philip · Answer

chipwI generally see 'high' used to describe something above the ground level, and 'tall' as something that starts at ground level (with exceptions of course).

That's a good distinction!

CalifJim · Answer

yellowstarstruck1. The Canton tower is higher than the CN tower.

One tower is at a higher elevation than another. Its base is farther from the center of the earth than the base of the other. Similarly, The ducks swimming in the water at the top of the waterfall are higher than the ducks swimming in the water at the bottom of the waterfall. It doesn't matter how tall the ducks are.

yellowstarstruck2. The Canton tower is taller than the CN tower.

The vertical distance from the bottom to the top of one tower is greater than the vertical distance from the bottom to the top of the other tower. Similarly, Giraffes are taller than horses. It doesn't matter where these animals are, whether in valleys or on mountains.

yellowstarstrucktallest building highest building

Same difference of meaning as for towers, explained above. In practical terms, when people talk about architectural structures, people are almost always talking about how tall a structure is, not how high it is.

yellowstarstrucktallest mountain highest mountain

Both are used with the same meaning. With "highest" there is an implication that the mountain peak is higher than all other mountain peaks because no mountain is literally higher than another. They all start from the ground.

____________

In general, tallness is a property of an object (or animal or person viewed as an object), regardless of its location with respect to the center of the earth, and height is a measurement of the location of an object with respect to the center of the earth regardless of the size of the object.
____________

That said, there are some idiosyncratic ways of using these words. For example, when you get a medical checkup, we say that the doctor records your height and weight, not your tallness and weight, which would be more accurate.

CJ

Yellowstarstruck · Answer

Thanks for your reply Philip. What I want to know from others is are they both acceptable? Is one more common with british english speakers?
1. The Canton tower is higher than the CN tower.
2. The Canton tower is taller than the CN tower.

Another example. Are they both acceptable.
1. The Empire State Building is higher than the Conde Nast Building.
2. The Conde Nast Building is taller than the Empire State Building.

Just a capitalization question. Should building and tower be capitalized?
Cheers! Fulvio

Yellowstarstruck · Answer

<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>Please ignore my last post. I just noticed there were a few more replies after Phillips. Thanks for the explanations.

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