outermost

Pluraloutermosts

1. 1
   adjective

   Superlative of outer.

   Workers reinforced the outermost wall to withstand the rising floodwaters.

   The outermost ring of the stadium holds the cheapest seats.

   Note

   A superlative built with -most rather than -est, the pattern English reserves for a small set of position words: innermost, uppermost, hindmost. Its history is tangled. Old English ūtemest was reshaped in Middle English under the pull of outre, "outer," so that it now reads as outer plus -most. Uttermost descends from the same source, which is why the two still overlap in meaning. Its natural opposite is innermost.

2. 2
   noun

   The thing or part lying farthest from the center or the inside.

   Among the planet's many rings, the outermost is faint and easily missed.

   She peeled back each layer until only the outermost remained on the table.

   Oppositeinnermost

   Note

   Here the adjective becomes a noun, most often standing in for a noun already mentioned: of all the rings, the outermost. A plural use is far rarer and has a philosophical flavor. C. P. Bronson's Elocution (1845) traces a course "from outermosts to innermosts, from effects to causes," pairing the word with its opposite to mean surface appearances as against inner essences.

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