Largest

How to spell largest

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce largest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does largest mean?

1. adjectiveGreatest in size, amount, or extent within a given group.

Largest in a sentence

• The company opened its largest warehouse on the outskirts of the city.

• She received the largest share of the inheritance.

Where does largest come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the superlative of 'large', which English took from Old French 'large' in the 1100s and 1200s. The French word descended from the Latin 'largus', which literally meant 'abundant', 'plentiful', or 'generous', and in its earliest English uses 'large' could likewise mean lavish or free with money rather than simply big in size. Over the medieval period the spatial sense of 'wide' and then 'great in size' took over and became dominant. The generous sense survives today in the related word 'largesse', meaning open-handed giving. The superlative is formed with the native English ending '-est', and the only spelling point worth noting is that the silent 'e' of 'large' is dropped before the suffix, leaving 'largest'.

How the word is built

• large (from Latin largus: abundant, generous)
• -est (superlative suffix)