stratospheric

Meanings

1. Relating to the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere above the one where weather occurs.
2. Informally, extremely high.

Example sentences

• "Prices in the city have risen to stratospheric levels."

  Level C1, Meaning 2

• "The balloon rose to a stratospheric height."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

• "Her hopes for the project were stratospheric."

  Level C1, Meaning 2

• "Scientists measured stratospheric ozone over the pole."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• astronomical : Astronomical also means huge, especially for numbers and costs. It is a close synonym.
• atmospheric : Atmospheric relates to the atmosphere as a whole, or describes a mood. Stratospheric relates to one layer of it.
• stratified : Stratified means arranged in layers. It shares the root strat, which means layer.

Word family and forms

Forms: more stratospheric, most stratospheric

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "stratospheric".

• stratospheric prices
• stratospheric rise
• stratospheric levels
• stratospheric rents
• stratospheric ozone
• stratospheric heights
• stratospheric ambitions

Origin

Stratospheric is made from stratosphere plus the ending ic. Stratosphere came from French stratosphère, a word coined by a meteorologist in the early 1900s, built from the Latin word stratum, meaning a layer, and sphere. The informal meaning of extremely high grows from the idea of being far above the ground.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Stratosphere is the high layer of air above the clouds. Anything stratospheric has gone up that high.

Test yourself

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