Maxim

How to spell maxim

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce maxim

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does maxim mean?

1. nounA short, memorable statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct.

Maxim in a sentence

• Her grandmother lived by the maxim that honesty saves time in the long run.

• The manager opened the training session with a familiar business maxim about treating customers well.

Where does maxim come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin maxima, the feminine form of maximus, meaning 'greatest' or 'largest'. In medieval Latin logic, scholars spoke of a maxima propositio, literally a 'greatest premise', meaning the broadest and most self-evident principle from which other truths could be drawn. English took up the word through Old French in the late 1400s, gradually narrowing it to mean a short, memorable statement of a general truth or a guiding rule of conduct. The same maximus root lies behind 'maximum' and 'maximal', so the idea of 'greatest' is built right into the spelling. Because the word is short and ends in the slightly unusual -im rather than -um, writers sometimes hesitate over how it closes, even though it traces straight back to that Latin sense of greatness.

How the word is built

• maxim (from Latin maxima: greatest, in the phrase maxima propositio, 'greatest or most general premise')