Peak Meaning
/piːk/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
nounThe highest value reached by some quantity in a time period.
Sentence Examples
The excitement reached its peak.
The peak rises above the clouds.
Traffic reaches its peak between 8 and 9 in the morning.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After a long hike, we finally reached the snowy ____ of the mountain.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Tourism in the region reaches its ____ during the summer months when the weather is warmest.
Word Origin & History
From earlier peake, peek, peke, from Middle English pek (in place names), itself an alteration of pike, pyke, pyk (“a sharp point, pike”), from Old English pīc, piic (“a pike, needle, pin, peak, pinnacle”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz (“peak”). Cognate with Dutch piek (“pike, point, summit, peak”), Danish pik (“pike, peak”), Swedish pik (“pike, lance, point, peak”), Norwegian pik (“peak, summit”). More at pike.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A less risky method is to lift your whisk or beater to check the condition of the peaks of the egg whites; the foam should be just stiff enough to stand up in well-defined, unwavering peaks."
— 2002, Joy of Cooking: All About Cookies, →ISBN, page 29:
"By last year, family income was 8 percent lower than it had been 11 years earlier, at its peak in 2000, according to inflation-adjusted numbers from the Census Bureau."
— 2012 October 23, David Leonhardt, New York Times, retrieved 24 Oct 2012:
"To the South we observed a large plain some ten miles wide, with snowy peaks rising on the farther side. In front was a hill projecting into the plain, on which stood a mani wall; and this latter discovery made me feel quite confident that I was on the high road to Lhassa."
— 1898, Arnold Henry Savage Landor, chapter 62, in In the Forbidden Land:
"There peaketh up a mightie high mounte."
— 1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “(please specify the book number)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC:
"I came to this via sport but the thing that really peaked me was this."
— 2019 August 4, Alison Weir (@WeirAlison), Twitter:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After a long hike, we finally reached the snowy ____ of the mountain.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Tourism in the region reaches its ____ during the summer months when the weather is warmest.