Definition of "extreme"

extreme

/ɪkˈstɹiːm/

adjective
comparative extremer or more extreme, superlative extremest or most extreme
1. Of a place, the most remote, farthest or outermost.
2. In the greatest or highest degree; intense.
  Quotations
  And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
3. Excessive, or far beyond the norm.
  Quotations
  An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex. The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain, as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.
  2013 March, Frank Fish, George Lauder, “Not Just Going with the Flow”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 114
4. Drastic, or of great severity.
5. Of sports, difficult or dangerous; performed in a hazardous environment.
6. (archaic) Ultimate, final or last.
noun
plural extremes
1. The greatest or utmost point, degree or condition.
  Quotations
  Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes. […] But withal there was a perceptible acumen about the man which was puzzling in the extreme.
  1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
2. Each of the things at opposite ends of a range or scale.
  Quotations
  Most public discussion about heat extremes refers to risks faced by the general community. Yet even greater extremes of heat exposure do and will occur in many occupational settings, posing special risks to health, behavior, and work capacity.
  2017, Anthony J. McMichael, Alistair Woodward, Cameron Muir, Climate Change and the Health of Nations, page 56
3. (obsolete, plural only) One of the last moments of life.
4. A drastic expedient.
5. (obsolete, plural only) Hardships, straits.
  Quotations
  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. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act III, scene ii
6. (mathematics) Either of the two numbers at the ends of a proportion, as 1 and 6 in 1:2=3:6.
adverb
comparative more extreme, superlative most extreme
1. (archaic) Extremely.
  Quotations
  In the empty and extreme cold theatre.
  1796, Charles Burney, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Metastasio, section 2.5

Definition of "extreme"

extreme

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adverb

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