different between vast vs towering

English

Etymology

From Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus (“void, immense”). Doublet of fada.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: väst, IPA^(key): /v??st/
• (US) IPA^(key): /væst/
• Rhymes: -??st

Adjective

vast (comparative vaster or more vast, superlative vastest or most vast)

1. Very large or wide (literally or figuratively).

2. Very great in size, amount, degree, intensity, or especially extent.
3. (obsolete) Waste; desert; desolate; lonely.

Translations

Noun

vast (plural vasts)

1. (poetic) A vast space.
   • 1608, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I.i

     they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook hands, as over a vast, and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• ATVs, VSAT, tavs, vats

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin v?stus.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?vast/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?bast/

Adjective

vast (feminine vasta, masculine plural vasts or vastos, feminine plural vastes)

1. vast, wide

Related terms

• vastitud

Further reading

• “vast” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “vast” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “vast” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “vast” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v?st/
• Hyphenation: vast
• Rhymes: -?st

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch vast, from Old Dutch fast, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz.

Adjective

vast (comparative vaster, superlative meest vast or vastst)

1. firm, fast, tight
2. fixed, not moving or changing

3. stuck, unable to get out

4. (chemistry) in the solid state

5. (botany) perennial

6. (of a telephone) using a landline

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: vas

Adverb

vast

1. surely, certainly

   Synonym: zeker

2. (informal, sarcastically) sure, yeah, right

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

vast

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of vasten
2. imperative of vasten

Estonian

Etymology

Of Finno-Mordvinic or Finno-Volgaic origin. Cognate to Finnish vasta, Votic vassa, Northern Sami vuostá, Erzya ??????? (vastoms, “to meet; to receive”), Moksha ????? (vasta, “place; distance”) and possibly Western Mari ???????? (?aštareš, “against; across”).

Adverb

vast

1. maybe, possibly
2. recently, just, now

Derived terms

References

Livonian

Etymology

Akin to Finnish vasten

Preposition

vast

1. against

Ludian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *vasta.

Noun

vast

1. bundle (of switches for the sauna)

Romani

Etymology

Perhaps from Sanskrit ???? (hásta), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *??ástas, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *???ástas, from Proto-Indo-European *??és-to- (“hand”) < *??es-. Compare Punjabi ??? (hatth), Hindi ??? (h?th), Bengali ??? (hat); compare also Persian ???? (dast).

Noun

vast m (plural vasta)

1. (anatomy) hand

Romanian

Etymology

From French vaste, from Latin vastus.

Adjective

vast m or n (feminine singular vast?, masculine plural va?ti, feminine and neuter plural vaste)

1. vast

Declension

Related terms

• vastitate

Veps

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *vasta.

Noun

vast

1. bundle (of switches for the sauna)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ta?????/

Verb

towering

1. present participle of tower

Adjective

towering (comparative more towering, superlative most towering)

1. Very tall or high, so as to dwarf anything around it.

   • So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   • 1964, Look (volume 28, page 338)

     She is a towering girl with a husky baritone voice and a friendly and flamboyant style.

Translations

Noun

towering (plural towerings)

1. The act or condition of being high above others.
   • 1787, Robert Burns, letter to a friend

     But I am an old hawk at the sport; and wrote her such a cool, deliberate, prudent reply, as brought my bird from the aerial towerings, pop down at my foot like Corporal Trim's hat.

See also

• tower over
• towering inferno