Utmost Meaning
/ˈʌtməʊ̯st/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjsuperlative form of utter: most utter; situated at the most distant limit; farthest, outermost.
adjThe most extreme; greatest, ultimate.
Sentence Examples
Let's take the utmost caution against errors.
He treated it with utmost care.
I was treated with the utmost courtesy by the staff.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The experienced climber showed ____ care while crossing the dangerous ice bridge.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please treat the matter with the ____ care, as it is a very sensitive issue for the whole company today.
Word Origin & History
PIE word *úd From Middle English utmost, utemest [and other forms], from Old English ūtmest, ūtemest [and other forms], from ūt, ūte (“out; outdoors, outside”) + -mest (suffix meaning ‘furthest’, used to form superlatives of some adjectives) (and conflated with most). Ūt is derived from Proto-Germanic *ūt (“out, outward”), from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“out, outward”). Equivalent to out + -most.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Betwixt two thieves I [Jesus] ſpend my utmoſt breath, / As he that for ſome robberie ſuffereth."
— [1633], George Herbert, “The Sacrifice”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 26:
"[W]e coaſted within 2 leagues of Antibes, which is the utmoſt towne in France."
— 1644 October 20 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 11 October 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 72:
"[T]he maſters, wardens, ſearchers, aſſiſtants and commonalty of the company of cutlers in Hallamſhire in the county of York, their ſucceſſors and aſſigns, are nominated and appointed undertakers of the ſaid navigation, with power to make the ſaid river navigable, at their own expence, from Holmſtile aforeſaid, up the ſaid river above Holmſtile to the utmoſt extent of Tinſley westward, [...]"
— 1733, Danby Pickering, “Cap. IX. An Act to Explain and Amend Two Acts of Parliament, […], for Making Navigable the River Dun in the County of York, […]”, in The Statutes at Large, from the Second to the 9th Year of King George II. […], volume XVI, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Joseph Bentham, […]; for Charles Bathurst, […], published 1765, →OCLC, page 370:
"As yet we are far from having explored the utmost depths of space. Our telescopes have only reached a limited distance into the regions of the heavens."
— 1852 March, Professor Larrabee, “The Heavens”, in W. C. Larrabee, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XII, Cincinnati, Oh.: L. Swormstedt and A. Poe; […], →OCLC, page 109, column 1:
"Our nature is need for truth and fulfilment, or, in other words, happiness. [...] But this desire, having reached the extreme borders of our life experience, still does not find what it has been searching for: at the utmost frontier of its lived territory, this urgent need of ours still has not found its answer."
— 1997, Luigi Giussani, “The Hypothesis of Revelation: Conditions for Its Acceptability”, in John Zucchi, transl., The Religious Sense, Montreal, Que.: McGill–Queen's University Press, →ISBN, page 141:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The experienced climber showed ____ care while crossing the dangerous ice bridge.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please treat the matter with the ____ care, as it is a very sensitive issue for the whole company today.