When spoken of mountains and other land features, it can be used instead of the term "altitude". It is often measured in feet or meters above mean sea level (ASL or AMSL).
Elevation can be found by

Élévation
by Charles Baudelaire
found in his chef d'oeuvre, Les Fleurs du Mal
Translation by e2's own kaytay

Au-dessus des étangs, au-dessus des vallées,
Above the ponds, above the valleys,
Des montagnes, des bois, des nuages, des mers,
Mountains, woods, clouds, seas,
Par delà le soleil, par delà les éthers,
Across the sun, across the ethers,
Par delà les confins des sphères étoilées,
Across the confines of the starry spheres,

Mon esprit, tu te meus avec agilité,
My spirit, you yourself wander with agility,
Et, comme un bon nageur, qui se pâme dans l'onde,
And, as a good swimmer, who revels in the waves,
Tu sillonnes gaiement l'immensité profonde
You gaily furrow through the deep immensity
Avec une indicible et mâle volupté.
With an unutterable male delight.

Envole-toi bien loin de ces miasmes morbides ;
Fly yourself well beyond these morbid miasmas;
Va te purifier dans l'air supérieur,
Go purify yourself in the superior air,
Et bois, comme une pure et divine liqueur,
And drink, like a pure and divine liquor,
Le feu clair qui remplit les espaces limpides.
The clear fire which fills limpid spaces.

Derrière les ennuis et les vastes chagrins
Behind the boredom and the vast sorrows
Qui chargent de leur poids l'existence brumeuse,
Who charge of their weight the foggy existence,
Heureux celui qui peut d'une aile vigoureuse
Happy that which can by a vigorous wing
S'élancer vers les champs lumineux et sereins ;
Spring towards the luminous and serene fields;

Celui dont les pensées, comme des alouettes,
That of which the thoughts, like larks,
Vers les cieux le matin prennent un libre essor,
Towards the skies the morning takes a free rise,
Qui plane sur la vie, et comprend sans effort
Which planes on life, and understand without effort
Le langage des fleurs et des choses muettes !
The language of flowers and the mute things!


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CST Approved

El`e*va"tion (?), n. [L. elevatio: cf. F. 'el'evation.]

1.

The act of raising from a lower place, condition, or quality to a higher; -- said of material things, persons, the mind, the voice, etc.; as, the elevation of grain; elevation to a throne; elevation of mind, thoughts, or character.

2.

Condition of being elevated; height; exaltation.

"Degrees of elevation above us."

Locke.

His style . . . wanted a little elevation. Sir H. Wotton.

3.

That which is raised up or elevated; an elevated place or station; as, an elevation of the ground; a hill.

4. Astron.

The distance of a celestial object above the horizon, or the arc of a vertical circle intercepted between it and the horizon; altitude; as, the elevation of the pole, or of a star.

5. Dialing

The angle which the style makes with the substylar line.

6. Gunnery

The movement of the axis of a piece in a vertical plane; also, the angle of elevation, that is, the angle between the axis of the piece and the line o sight; -- distinguished from direction.

7. Drawing

A geometrical projection of a building, or other object, on a plane perpendicular to the horizon; orthographic projection on a vertical plane; -- called by the ancients the orthography.

Angle of elevation Geodesy, the angle which an ascending line makes with a horizontal plane. -- Elevation of the host R. C. Ch., that part of the Mass in which the priest raises the host above his head for the people to adore.

 

© Webster 1913.

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