maximum
- 1Of the highest degree, amount, or intensity that is possible or permitted.
The engine delivers maximum power at six thousand rpm.
Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence allowed under the law.
UsageUsually right before its noun (maximum speed, the maximum sentence), with no more or most.
Similarmaximal
- 2The highest limit; the greatest amount, number, or degree that can be reached or allowed.
The bank sets a maximum of five thousand dollars on new credit cards.
Wind speeds reached their maximum just before the storm moved offshore.
UsageOften a maximum of + number: a maximum of ten people. The plural is maximums or maxima.
Similarlimit, ceiling, cap, peak, top
Oppositeminimum
Note
It often travels with minimum, as in P. Colquhoun's A Treatise on Indigence (1806), which asks legislation to bring a nation "to the maximum of happiness and the minimum of misery."
- 3Used after a number or amount to show that it is the upper limit: at the most.
We agreed to spend fifty dollars, maximum, on the office gift.
The rescue boat can carry eight people maximum, so they made two trips.
UsageComes after the number: eight people maximum; or say a maximum of eight or at most eight.
Similartops
- 4In mathematics and statistics, the largest value in a set, sample or distribution, or the highest value a function reaches over all or part of its domain.
The temperature function reaches its maximum around midafternoon.
The curve has two local maxima before it decreases toward zero.
UsageOften a local maximum or the global maximum; in this use the plural is usually maxima.
Note
In mathematics the word always needs a scope. A global maximum is the largest value a function takes anywhere in its domain. A local maximum is at least as large as every value in some neighborhood around it, so one curve can have several local maxima and a single global peak. For a set, the maximum is an upper bound that belongs to the set itself.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- A mathematical maximum is relative to a scope; a global maximum concerns the function's entire domain. en.wikipedia.org
- A local maximum is at least as large as every value in some neighborhood; ties are allowed. Strict inequality defines a strict local maximum. healy.econ.ohio-state.edu
- A curve can have several local maxima and one global peak. en.wikipedia.org
- A set's maximum is an upper bound belonging to the set. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 5A prison or prison unit run at the highest level of security; short for maximum security.
The gang's leader is serving his sentence in maximum.
Visits become rare once an inmate lands in maximum.
UsageUsed like a place, with no article: in maximum, out of maximum, usually once prisons are the topic.
Note
Colloquial speech clips the phrase to its first word and treats the result like a place name, with no article: you are in maximum, or you get out of maximum. Alice Thompson's personal advertisement in Gay Community News (1983) has exactly that shape: "I just got out of maximum."
- 6In snooker, a break of 147 points, made by potting all fifteen reds, each followed by the black, and then all six colors in one visit: the standard maximum.
- 7In darts, a score of 180 from a single turn of three darts, the highest total possible in one visit to the board.
- 8In cricket, a shot that scores six runs, made by hitting the ball over the boundary without it touching the ground.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
The word came into English from French, which took it from the Latin "maximum."
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- English borrowed maximum through French. en.wiktionary.org
- French borrowed maximum from Latin maximum. fr.wiktionary.org