extreme
Noun pluralextremes
Pluralextremes
- 1Reaching the greatest or highest degree; very intense.
The hikers faced extreme heat as they crossed the desert.
He spoke with extreme caution, weighing every single word.
UsageCompares with more extreme and most extreme. Often before nouns of feeling or conditions: extreme caution, extreme heat.
- 2Going too far, well beyond what is usual or reasonable; excessive.
The new rules placed extreme demands on the workers.
Critics called the spending extreme and impossible to sustain.
Similarexcessive, immoderate, unreasonable, extravagant, undue
Oppositemoderate, reasonable
- 3The farthest point, highest degree, or most intense condition that something can reach.
Her generosity was taken to an extreme that worried her friends.
Some athletes push their bodies to the extreme, training for hours every day without a break.
UsageCommon in take something to an extreme (or to extremes) and in the extreme after an adjective, meaning extremely: dull in the extreme.
- 4Either of the things found at the opposite ends of a range or scale.
The committee swung between the two extremes of caution and recklessness.
Each extreme of the political spectrum distrusts the center.
UsageUsually plural: extremes of temperature, the two extremes, go from one extreme to the other.
Oppositemiddle, center, midpoint
Note
It is usually plural: extremes of temperature, the two extremes, from one extreme to the other. Anthony J. McMichael and his co-authors (2017) warn of "even greater extremes of heat exposure" in many occupational settings. Pole is its nearest synonym, and it carries the same picture: two ends with a span stretched between them.
- 5Of a person, a group, or a set of opinions: holding political or religious positions far outside the moderate mainstream.
The bill was opposed by moderates in both parties and backed only by the extreme wing of the movement.
She left the congregation once its leaders began preaching extreme views about the end of the world.
UsageOften in the extreme left and the extreme right for the far wings of politics.
Similarradical, extremist, fanatical, militant
Oppositemoderate, mainstream
- 6Farthest, most remote, or at the outermost edge of a place.
Explorers reached the extreme southern tip of the continent.
The old lighthouse stands at the extreme western tip of the island, facing the open ocean.
Similarfarthest, outermost, furthest, remotest
Note
The spatial sense sits closest to the word's Latin source. Extrēmus was the superlative of exter, and the word, which came into late Middle English by way of Old French, keeps that superlative built in: it names the farthest one rather than merely a far one. That is why it pairs so naturally with edge, tip and border, and why its opposites are nearest and closest.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Latin extrēmus had the spatial meaning ‘farthest, outermost’. en.wiktionary.org
- Extrēmus was the superlative of exter. en.wiktionary.org
- Extreme entered late Middle English through Old French, ultimately from Latin. en.wiktionary.org
- 7Of an action or measure taken: drastic or severe in its effect or intention.
The government resorted to extreme measures during the crisis.
An extreme penalty like that seemed out of proportion to the crime.
UsageCommon with measures, steps and action: resort to extreme measures.
Oppositemoderate
- 8Of a sport, hard or dangerous to do and taking place in surroundings that carry real risk.
The resort caters to extreme skiers who seek out the steepest slopes.
Base jumping ranks as an extreme pursuit even among seasoned adventurers.
UsageMost often before a noun, as in extreme sports or extreme skiing.
Similardangerous
Less common meanings
- 9A drastic measure or expedient adopted to deal with something.
Rationing food was an extreme the town accepted only reluctantly.
Desperate investors resorted to extremes that wrecked the market.
UsageMostly in go to extremes (plural, no article). For one drastic step, an extreme measure is more usual.
Similarexpedient
- 10Extremely; to the greatest degree.
In the empty and extreme cold theatre.
1796, Charles Burney, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of MetastasioNote
An adverb that does without its -ly and sits bare in front of an adjective. Charles Burney's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Metastasio (1796) still has extreme cold where a modern writer would put extremely cold. The trap is reading it as the adjective. In extreme cold weather, extreme qualifies cold, not the weather. Outside deliberate period pastiche, write extremely.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Extreme historically functioned as an adverb modifying adjectives. en.wiktionary.org
- Charles Burney's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Metastasio contains the wording 'extreme cold'. en.wiktionary.org
- 11In mathematics, the first or last term of a proportion, such as 1 or 6 in 1:2 = 3:6.
In any proportion, the product of the extremes equals the product of the means.
She identified 5 as the missing extreme in the proportion.
Oppositemean
Note
Proportion has its own vocabulary of position. In a:b = c:d, the outer terms a and d are the extremes, and the inner terms b and c are the means. The classic check is that the two products match. In 1:2 = 3:6, the extremes give 1 × 6 and the means give 2 × 3, and both make six.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- In a:b = c:d, a and d are the extremes, and b and c are the means. math.libretexts.org
- A proportion can be checked by comparing the product of its extremes with the product of its means. education.gov.pg
- In 1:2 = 3:6, the extremes are 1 and 6, and the means are 2 and 3. education.gov.pg
- Both 1 × 6 and 2 × 3 equal six. sites.google.com
- 12Coming at the very end; ultimate, final, or last.
Note
A survival from older English, in which the word meant last in a sequence rather than most intense. The extreme hour of life is the final hour, not the hardest one. Modern readers will tend to hear the "greatest degree" meaning instead. In current prose, final, last or ultimate say this plainly, so keep extreme for deliberately archaic or elevated writing.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Extreme has an archaic meaning ‘ultimate, final or last’; in ‘the extreme hour of life’, it means the final hour. en.wiktionary.org
- 13The final moments of a person's life.
Note
A deathbed word that English has let go. It lived only in the plural: a dying man's extremes were his last moments, never a single extreme. If you borrow it for period writing, keep the plural. The same plural-only habit marks the obsolete "hardships" meaning, which is likewise long out of use.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Extreme had an obsolete, plural-only sense referring to the last moments of life. en.wiktionary.org
- The obsolete sense meaning ‘hardships’ was also plural-only. en.wiktionary.org
- 14Hardships or difficult straits.
a farther paſſion feeds my thoughts, With ceaſeleſſe and diſconſolate conceits, Which dies my lookes so liueleſſe as they are, And might, if my extreames had ful euents, Make me the gaſtly counterfeit of death.
c. 1587, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First PartNote
Hardship spoken of as a burden on the mind. Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587–1588) uses "my extreames," in the old spelling, for afflictions that might make Zenocrate "the gastly counterfeit of death." Like the deathbed meaning, it was plural-only and is now obsolete. Modern English says straits or hardships instead.
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Practice
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Origin
Latin extrēmus, the superlative of exter, gave Old French extreme, which English took over in the late Middle English period.