FromMiddle Englishcenyth, fromMedieval Latincenit, fromArabicسَمْت(samt,“direction, path”), from the fuller formسَمْت اَلرَّأْس(samt ar-raʔs,“direction of the head”). The-ni- for-m- is sometimes thought to be due to a misreading of the three strokes, which is plausible, though it could be a mere phonetic approximation.

• (UK,General Australian)IPA^(key):/ˈzɛn.ɪθ/
• (US)IPA^(key):/ˈzi.nɪθ/

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zenith (pluralzeniths)

1. (astronomy) The point in the skyvertically above a given position or observer; thepoint in thecelestial sphere opposite thenadir.

   Antonyms:nadir,perigee

   • 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert,Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:

     The 12 day wee had the wind high and large ſo that in two dayes ſaile we made the Sunne ourZenith or verticall point[…]

   • 1671–1693: Rev. Thomas Jolly,private notebook; printed in:1895, Henry Fishwick (editor),The Note Book of the Rev. Thomas Jolly: A.D. 1671–1693. Extracts from the Church Books of Altham and Wymondhouses, 1649–1725. And an Account of the Jolly Family of Standish, Gorton, and Altham,page 44

     In this 10th m. appeared that prodigious Comett the tayl whereof was like the blade of a double edged sword, and reached almost from the horizon to thezenith.

   • 1938,Xavier Herbert, chapter XI, inCapricornia‎^[1], New York: D. Appleton-Century, published1943, page180:

     In the east a pillar of cloud reared from horizon tozenith, with a kind of arm outstretched like a threatening colossus.

2. (astronomy) Thehighest point in the sky reached by acelestial body.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe],The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London:[…] W[illiam] Taylor […],→OCLC:

     […] in the middle of the day, when the sun was in thezenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out[…]

   • 1920,Peter B. Kyne, chapter II, inThe Understanding Heart:

     As far to the west as Monica could see, her world was a sea of fog,[…]. Above it arched a cerulean sky; as the sun climbed to thezenith,[…], the fog gradually took on a bluish tinge.

3. (by extension) Highest point orstate;peak.

   Synonyms:acme,apogee,culmination,pinnacle

   Winning the continental championship was thezenith of my career.

   • 1610–1611 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act I, scene ii]:

     I find myzenith doth depend upon / A most auspicious star.

   • 1849–1861,Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, inThe History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume(please specify |volume=I to V), London:Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,→OCLC:

     It was during those civil troubles[…] this aspiring family reached thezenith.

   • 1900, William Beckford,The History of the Caliph Vathek‎^[2], page173:

     "There for a while I enjoyed myself in thezenith of glory and pleasure."

• antizenith

• azimuth,nadir

•  zenith on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Heintz,Hintze