Extreme

How to spell extreme

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce extreme

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does extreme mean?

1. adjectiveReaching the highest or most intense degree; very far from the ordinary or moderate.
2. nounThe furthest point or highest degree of something, often at one of two opposite limits.

Extreme in a sentence

• adjective

  The hikers faced extreme cold near the summit.

• noun

  The desert climate swings from one extreme to another within a single day.

• adjective

  Taking out a second mortgage felt like an extreme measure.

• noun

  He tends to take every diet to the extreme.

Where does extreme come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin extremus, which means 'outermost' or 'furthest', and which was itself the superlative form of exterus, meaning 'outward' or 'on the outside'. In other words, something extreme was originally that which lay at the very edge or limit, as far out as it was possible to go. English took the word in during the fifteenth century, by way of Old French extreme, and at first it kept that strong sense of the utmost point or boundary. From there the meaning broadened into the modern idea of something reaching the highest or most intense degree. The same exterus root sits behind familiar words such as 'exterior' and 'external', and the spelling trap lies entirely at the end, where the calm '-eme' is pronounced 'eem' but never written that way.

How the word is built

• extrem- (from Latin extremus: outermost, furthest)
• -e