extreme
Americanadjective
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of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average.
extreme measures.
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utmost or exceedingly great in degree.
extreme joy.
- Synonyms:
- superlative
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farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost.
the extreme limits of a town.
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farthest, utmost, or very far in any direction.
an object at the extreme point of vision.
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exceeding the bounds of moderation.
extreme fashions.
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going to the utmost or very great lengths in action, habit, opinion, etc..
an extreme conservative.
- Synonyms:
- unreasonable, uncompromising, fanatical, excessive, immoderate, extravagant
- Antonyms:
- moderate
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last or final.
extreme hopes.
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Chiefly Sports. very dangerous or difficult.
extreme skiing.
noun
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the utmost or highest degree, or a very high degree.
cautious to an extreme.
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one of two things as remote or different from each other as possible.
the extremes of joy and grief.
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the furthest or utmost length; an excessive length, beyond the ordinary or average.
extremes in dress.
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an extreme act, measure, condition, etc..
the extreme of poverty.
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Mathematics.
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the first or the last term, as of a proportion or series.
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a relative maximum or relative minimum value of a function in a given region.
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Logic. the subject or the predicate of the conclusion of a syllogism; either of two terms that are separated in the premises and brought together in the conclusion.
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Archaic. the utmost point, or extremity, of something.
adjective
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being of a high or of the highest degree or intensity
extreme cold
extreme difficulty
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exceeding what is usual or reasonable; immoderate
extreme behaviour
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very strict, rigid, or severe; drastic
an extreme measure
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(prenominal) farthest or outermost in direction
the extreme boundary
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meteorol of, relating to, or characteristic of a continental climate
noun
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the highest or furthest degree (often in the phrases in the extreme, go to extremes )
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(often plural) either of the two limits or ends of a scale or range of possibilities
extremes of temperature
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maths
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the first or last term of a series or a proportion
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a maximum or minimum value of a function
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logic the subject or predicate of the conclusion of a syllogism
Related Words
See radical.
Other Word Forms
- extremeness noun
- overextreme adjective
- quasi-extreme adjective
- superextreme adjective
- superextremely adverb
- superextremeness noun
- unextreme adjective
Etymology
Origin of extreme
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Latin extrēmus “most outward,” superlative of exterus “outward”; exterior
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, described it as one of the most “extreme heat events ever observed in the American Southwest.”
From Los Angeles Times
He learned then that people who post extreme content often flock to new sites and flood the system until they are shut out and eventually move on to somewhere else.
From Los Angeles Times
As Sam Sacks writes of this posthumously published collection of short stories, “Segal never loses her equipoise, or her sense of humor, in these most extreme confrontations with mortality.”
However, he noted that it’s a special breed that can handle the extremes of the test pilot job — and that it requires some serious risk management across the whole team.
From Los Angeles Times
Although Einstein's theory of general relativity has worked extremely well for over a century, it fails under the extreme conditions present at the universe's birth.
From Science Daily
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
