[syn: extreme, utmost(a), uttermost(a)]
2. far beyond a norm in quantity or amount or degree; to an utmost degree;
- Example: "an extreme example"
- Example: "extreme temperatures"
- Example: "extreme danger"
3. beyond a norm in views or actions;
- Example: "an extreme conservative"
- Example: "an extreme liberal"
- Example: "extreme views on integration"
- Example: "extreme opinions"
4. most distant in any direction;
- Example: "the extreme edge of town"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Extreme \Ex*treme"\, a. [L. extremus, superl. of exter, extrus,
on the outside, outward: cf. F. extr[^e]me. See Exterior.]
1. At the utmost point, edge, or border; outermost; utmost;
farthest; most remote; at the widest limit.
[1913 Webster]
2. Last; final; conclusive; -- said of time; as, the extreme
hour of life.
[1913 Webster]
3. The best of worst; most urgent; greatest; highest;
immoderate; excessive; most violent; as, an extreme case;
extreme folly. "The extremest remedy." --Dryden. "Extreme
rapidity." --Sir W. Scott.
[1913 Webster]
Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire. --Shak.
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4. Radical; ultra; as, extreme opinions.
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The Puritans or extreme Protestants. --Gladstone.
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5. (Mus.) Extended or contracted as much as possible; -- said
of intervals; as, an extreme sharp second; an extreme flat
forth.
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Extreme and mean ratio (Geom.), the relation of a line and
its segments when the line is so divided that the whole is
to the greater segment is to the less.
Extreme distance. (Paint.) See Distance., n., 6.
Extreme unction. See under Unction.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Although this adjective, being superlative in
signification, is not properly subject to comparison,
the superlative form not unfrequently occurs,
especially in the older writers. "Tried in his
extremest state." --Spenser. "Extremest hardships."
--Sharp. "Extremest of evils." --Bacon. "Extremest
verge of the swift brook." --Shak. "The sea's extremest
borders." --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Extreme \Ex*treme"\, n.
1. The utmost point or verge; that part which terminates a
body; extremity.
[1913 Webster]
2. Utmost limit or degree that is supposable or tolerable;
hence, furthest degree; any undue departure from the mean;
-- often in the plural: things at an extreme distance from
each other, the most widely different states, etc.; as,
extremes of heat and cold, of virtue and vice; extremes
meet.
[1913 Webster]
His parsimony went to the extreme of meanness.
--Bancroft.
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3. An extreme state or condition; hence, calamity, danger,
distress, etc. "Resolute in most extremes." --Shak.
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4. (Logic) Either of the extreme terms of a syllogism, the
middle term being interposed between them.
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5. (Math.) The first or the last term of a proportion or
series.
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In the extreme as much as possible. "The position of the
Port was difficult in the extreme." --J. P. Peters.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
extreme
adj 1: of the greatest possible degree or extent or intensity;
"extreme cold"; "extreme caution"; "extreme pleasure";
"utmost contempt"; "to the utmost degree"; "in the
uttermost distress" [syn: extreme, utmost(a),
uttermost(a)]
2: far beyond a norm in quantity or amount or degree; to an
utmost degree; "an extreme example"; "extreme temperatures";
"extreme danger"
3: beyond a norm in views or actions; "an extreme conservative";
"an extreme liberal"; "extreme views on integration";
"extreme opinions"
4: most distant in any direction; "the extreme edge of town"
n 1: the furthest or highest degree of something; "he carried it
to extremes"
2: the point located farthest from the middle of something [syn:
extreme point, extreme, extremum]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
367 Moby Thesaurus words for "extreme":
Draconian, Thule, Ultima Thule, a bit much, abandon, abandoned,
abnormal, acme, acute, aggrandized, aggrandizement, all,
amplification, amplified, anarchistic, anarcho-syndicalist, apex,
apogee, at the height, ballyhoo, ballyhooed, bibulous, big talk,
bigoted, bitter end, bizarre, blowing up, bordering, borderline,
bottom dollar, boundary, bounding, boundless, boundlessness,
bounds, breakaway, burlesque, butt, butt end, caricature, caudal,
ceiling, climax, coastal, conclusive, conservative, constrictive,
consummation, crapulent, crapulous, crest, crown, culmination,
cutting, deep, definitive, depth, desperate, determinant,
determinative, determining, different, dilatation, dilation,
disproportionate, distant, dizzy, drastic, eccentric, egregious,
egregiousness, end, endmost, enhancement, enlargement, enormous,
enormousness, eventual, exaggerated, exaggerating, exaggeration,
exceedingly, exceptional, exceptionally, excess, excessive,
excessiveness, excruciating, exorbitance, exorbitancy, exorbitant,
exotic, expansion, exquisite, extraordinarily, extraordinary,
extravagance, extravagancy, extravagant, extremely, extremes,
extremism, extremist, extremistic, extremity, fabulous,
fabulousness, factious, fag end, fanatic, fancy, far out, far-off,
farthermost, farthest, farthest bound, farthest off, fierce, final,
fringing, frontier, furious, furthermost, furthest, giantism,
gigantic, gigantism, gluttonous, gluttony, go to extremes,
grandiloquence, grandiloquent, great, greatest, haggard, harsh,
height, heightening, hidebound, high, high-flown, highest degree,
huckstering, hyperbole, hyperbolic, hyperbolism, hypertrophied,
hypertrophy, immoderacy, immoderate, immoderateness, immoderation,
in the extreme, incontinence, incontinent, indulgent, inflated,
inflation, inordinacy, inordinance, inordinate, inordinateness,
insurgent, insurrectionary, intemperance, intemperate,
intemperateness, intense, intolerable, irrational,
jumping-off place, keen, kooky, last, limbic, liminal, limit,
limiting, limits, littoral, magnification, magnified, marginal,
maximum, mildly radical, monstrous, monstrousness, most,
most distant, moving, mutineering, mutinous, nadir, ne plus ultra,
nib, nihilistic, nimiety, notable, noteworthy, nth degree, offbeat,
out of bounds, out of sight, outermost, outmost, outrageous,
outrageousness, outre, outstanding, overbig, overdeveloped,
overdevelopment, overdone, overdrawn, overemphasis, overemphasized,
overemphatic, overenthusiastic, overestimated, overestimation,
overgreat, overgreatness, overgrown, overgrowth, overindulgence,
overindulgent, overindulging, overkill, overlarge, overlargeness,
overmuch, overmuchness, overpraised, overreligious, oversold,
overstated, overstatement, overstressed, overweening, overwrought,
overzealous, peak, perfervid, piercing, pink, pinnacle, poignant,
point, polar, pole, prodigal, prodigality, profuse, profuseness,
puffed, puffery, puffing up, queer, rabid, radical, radicalism,
rebel, rebellious, red, remarkable, remotest, restrictive,
revolutional, revolutionary, revolutionist, rigid, rigorous,
rimming, riotous, rough, seditionary, seditious, self-indulgent,
sensationalism, severe, sharp, skirting, splitting, steep, stern,
stiff, stretched, stretching, strict, stringent, stub, stump,
subversive, summit, superlative, swing, swinish, syndicalist, tag,
tag end, tail, tail end, tall talk, terminal, terminating,
terminative, the whole, threshold, tip, too much, too-muchness,
top, tough, touted, touting, towering, traitorous, travesty,
treasonable, turbulent, ultimate, ultra, ultra-ultra,
ultraconservative, ultraist, ultraistic, ultrazealous, unbridled,
uncommon, uncompromising, unconscionable, unconscionableness,
unconstrained, uncontrolled, unconventional, undisciplined, undue,
undueness, unfrugal, unlimited, unmeasurable, unmeasured,
unreasonable, unreasonableness, unrestrained, unrestrainedness,
unthrifty, unusual, unusually, unwarranted, utmost, utmost extent,
uttermost, vehement, venomous, very, violent, virulent, vivid,
way out, weird, wild, wild-eyed, wild-looking, worst, zealotic,
zenith