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extreme

Pronunciation: /ɪkˈstriːm, ɛk-/
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Definition of extreme

adjective

  • 1reaching a high or the highest degree; very great:extreme cold
  • not usual; exceptional:in extreme cases the soldier may be discharged
  • very severe or serious:expulsion is an extreme sanction
  • (of a person or their opinions) far from moderate, especially politically:groups of his more extreme supporters rioted in front of parliament
  • denoting or relating to a sport performed in a hazardous environment and involving great risk: extreme sports like snowboarding
  • 2 [attributive] furthest from the centre or a given point:the extreme north-west of Scotland

noun

  • 1either of two abstract things that are as different from each other as possible:we represented opposite extremes of college society—he a member of the Old Guard, I one of the radicals
  • the highest or most extreme degree of something:extremes of temperature
  • a very severe or serious measure:the extreme of applying for poor relief
  • 2 Logic the subject or predicate in a proposition, or the major or minor term in a syllogism (as contrasted with the middle term).

Phrases

extremes meet

proverb opposite extremes have much in common.

go (or take something) to extremes

take an extreme course of action; do something to an extreme degree:they took a commendable anti-ageist policy to extremes

in the extreme

to an extreme degree: the reasoning was convoluted in the extreme

Derivatives

extremeness

noun

Origin:

late Middle English: via Old French from Latin extremus 'outermost, utmost', superlative of exterus 'outer'

Spelling help

Remember that the ending of extreme is spelled -eme.

extreme in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of extreme in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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