Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Most remote in any direction; outermost or farthest.
  • adjective Being in or attaining the greatest or highest degree; very intense.
  • adjective Being far beyond the norm: synonym: excessive.
  • adjective Of the greatest severity; drastic.
  • adjective Characterized by severe, usually oxygen-poor environmental conditions.
  • adjective Having an affinity for such conditions.
  • adjective Very dangerous or difficult.
  • adjective Participating or tending to participate in a very dangerous or difficult sport.
  • adjective Archaic Final; last.
  • noun The greatest or utmost degree or point.
  • noun Either of the two things situated at opposite ends of a range.
  • noun An extreme condition.
  • noun An immoderate, drastic expedient.
  • noun The first or last term of a ratio or a series.
  • noun A maximum or minimum value of a function.
  • noun Logic The major or minor term of a syllogism.
  • idiom (in the extreme) To an extreme degree.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Outermost; situated at the utmost limit, point, or border; furthest of all; largest or smallest or last: as, the extreme verge or edge of a roof or a precipice; the extreme limit or hour of life.
  • Utmost or greatest in degree; the most, greatest, best, or worst that can exist or be supposed; such as cannot be exceeded: as, extreme pain or grief; extreme joy or pleasure; an extreme case.
  • Exacting or severe to the utmost.
  • In music, superfluous or augmented: thus, the extreme sharp sixth is the augmented sixth.
  • Synonyms Uttermost, most distant, most remote, terminal.
  • Final, ultimate, utter.
  • noun The utmost point or verge of a thing; that part which terminates a body; an extremity; the end or one of the ends, especially of correlated parts, of a body.
  • noun The utmost limit or degree that can be supposed or tolerated; either of two states, qualities, or feelings as different from each other as possible; the highest or the lowest degree: as, the extremes of heat and cold; avoid extremes.
  • noun Extremity; utmost need or distress.
  • noun In logic, the subject or the predicate of a categorical proposition; specifically, the subject or the predicate of the conclusion of a syllogism; either of two terms which are separated in the premises and brought together in the conclusion.
  • noun In mathematics: Either of the first and last terms of a proportion, or of any other related sequence or series of terms: as, when three magnitudes are proportional, the rectangle contained by the extremes is equal to the square of the mean.
  • noun The largest or the smallest of three or more magnitudes.
  • noun Any part of a right-angled or quadrantal spherical triangle other than the part assumed as mean.
  • noun Synonyms See extremity.
  • Extremely; excessively; exceedingly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective At the utmost point, edge, or border; outermost; utmost; farthest; most remote; at the widest limit.
  • adjective Last; final; conclusive; -- said of time.
  • adjective The best of worst; most urgent; greatest; highest; immoderate; excessive; most violent
  • adjective Radical; ultra.
  • adjective (Mus.) Extended or contracted as much as possible; -- said of intervals
  • adjective (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.
  • adjective (Paint.) See Distance., n., 6.
  • adjective See under Unction.
  • noun The utmost point or verge; that part which terminates a body; extremity.
  • noun 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.
  • noun An extreme state or condition; hence, calamity, danger, distress, etc.
  • noun (Logic) Either of the extreme terms of a syllogism, the middle term being interposed between them.
  • noun (Math.) The first or the last term of a proportion or series.
  • noun as much as possible.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of a place, the most remote, farthest or outermost.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin extrēmus; see eghs in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin extremus, the superlative of exterus

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