extremes
- 1The points at the opposite ends of a range or scale, farthest from the middle in each direction.
Like the highest and lowest notes on a piano: the far edges of what the range can reach.
Climate scientists track the extremes of temperature recorded in each decade.
Heated debate tends to push people toward the extremes and away from compromise.
Similarfringes, margins, poles
Oppositemiddle, center, mainstream
- 2Plural of extreme.
The novel explores the emotional extremes of grief and joy.
Engineers test the device under temperature extremes before release.
Note
Most senses of the singular simply multiply here, but two older ones lived only in the plural: extremes as the last moments of life, and extremes as hardships or straits. Both are now obsolete. Mathematics keeps a precise plural of its own. In the proportion 1:2 = 3:6, the extremes are 1 and 6, the numbers at either end. For the everyday use, see the opposite-ends meaning.
extremes is a form of extreme
extreme, noun: The farthest point, highest degree, or most intense condition that something can reach. Full entry
- Forms
- extremeextremes plural
- Spelling
- extreme → extremes: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
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