Other forms: exalted, exalting, exalts
To exalt is to praise somebody very highly. Exalt his memory, exalt the leader, exalted in song.
It also means to raise in rank, which is the older sense, and the two run together — exalting somebody puts them above the rest in words or in fact. It is formal and largely religious or ceremonial now. Note that the Latin means to raise high, from altus, high, the same root as altitude.
1verbexaltTo praise somebody very highly.
“The poem exalts the soldiers as heroes who saved the nation.”
exalt is a praising.
Latin exaltare is ex plus altus, high. Altitude, alto and haughty come from the same height.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂el- (grow)
Latin
exaltō
Old French
exalter
Middle English
exalten
English, today
exalt
From Middle English exalten, from Old French exalter, from Latin exaltō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA