maxim

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noun max·im \ ˈmak-səm \

Definition of maxim

1 :a general truth, fundamental principle, or rule of conduct

Mother's favorite maxim was "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

2 :a proverbial saying

advised her daughter with the maxim "marry in haste, repent at leisure"

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Examples of maxim in a Sentence

it's a common maxim that “a watched pot never boils,” but that's not literally true

Recent Examples of maxim from the Web

McCain’s heroism in Vietnam exemplifies the maxim that actions speak louder than words.

— frank rich, Daily Intelligencer, "Everything Trump Does Must Be Viewed Through This Single Lens," 27 July 2017
The answers are shocking to anybody remotely familiar with pitching maxims over the past 100 years.

— tom verducci, SI.com, "Slow down: The Yankees are leading a change in baseball by abandoning a principle of pitching," 19 July 2017
So in this new-age era of AI, the old maxim still applies: Garbage in, garbage out.

— barb darrow, Fortune, "Do You Need an Artificial Intelligence Strategy? The Answer May Surprise You," 18 July 2017
The maxim in the NBA is that teams don’t contend without superstar talent.

— shawn windsor, Detroit Free Press, "Chauncey Billups will run an NBA team one day; why not Detroit Pistons?," 3 July 2017
One of Washington's unwritten rules is this simple maxim: never underestimate Mitch McConnell.

— alex altman, Time, "Can Mitch McConnell Save the Republican Health Care Bill?," 27 June 2017
S.O.E. stands for Success Over Everything, a maxim adopted by Bryant and his friends growing up.

— matthew defranks, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Youth camp at American Heritage-Delray helps honor Greg Bryant," 24 June 2017
A fact of Washington life that ought to be a maxim, but isn't: not every important moment gets a headline.

— david von drehle, Time, "Will Robert Mueller Separate Fact From Fiction?," 22 June 2017
So the use of this particular maxim to close out a trailer that opens on a shot of Sansa in Winterfell's godswood seems to only add credence to the theory that the two sisters are fated to finally see each other again.

— megan mccluskey, Time, "The Meaning Behind Sansa Stark's Cryptic Voiceover in the New Game of Thrones Trailer," 22 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'maxim.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of maxim

Middle English maxime, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin maxima, from Latin, feminine of maximus, superlative of magnus large — more at much

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First Known Use: 1567

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