utmost

adjective

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ut·most | \ ˈət-ˌmōst

, especially Southern -məst \

Definition of utmost

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : situated at the farthest or most distant point : extreme the utmost point of the earth— John Hunt

2 : of the greatest or highest degree, quantity, number, or amount a matter of utmost concern

utmost

noun

Definition of utmost (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : the most possible : the extreme limit : the highest attainable point or degree the utmost in reliability

2 : the highest, greatest, or best of one's abilities, powers, and resources will do our utmost to help

Synonyms & Antonyms Did You Know? More Example Sentences Learn More about utmost

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Synonyms & Antonyms for utmost

Synonyms: Adjective

Antonyms: Adjective

Did You Know?

Adjective

Utmost traces back to the Old English Ūtmest, a superlative adjective formed from the adverb Ūt, meaning "out." Ūtmest eventually evolved into utmost, perhaps influenced by the spelling of the word most. Not surprisingly, the earlier sense of utmost carries the same meaning as outermost. The second sense of utmost, meaning "of the greatest or highest degree," first appeared in English in the 14th century but didn't see frequent use until almost 400 years later. A related word is utter, meaning "absolute" or "total," as in the phrase utter chaos; it comes from Old English utera, meaning "outer," and ultimately from Ūt.

Examples of utmost in a Sentence

Adjective supreme power that extended to the utmost points of the empire inhabitants of the war-ravaged region are experiencing the utmost misery imaginable Noun This new system represents the utmost in modern technology. It's designed to provide the utmost in comfort. We had to push ourselves to the utmost to finish the job in time.

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective The latest advancement in deep neural techniques — especially generative adversarial networks — fuels VC techniques' growth and paves a path to produce surreal fake voices of utmost high quality that are indistinguishable to human ears. — Dominic David, Forbes, "Analyzing The Rise Of Deepfake Voice Technology," 10 May 2021 The implicit message of the M4 is that the manual gearbox betokens utmost driver control and fun. — Ronald Ahrens, Robb Report, "Watching Milo Ventimiglia’s BMW Track Day Inspired Us to Give It a Try," 7 May 2021 Tom Brady is gone from New England, but his astounding legacy may benefit Jones by further prodding him to develop not just his mind but his body to the utmost extent. — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, "Column: NFL Draft’s top fits seem to be QBs for Niners, Patriots," 1 May 2021 The interests of the few are of the utmost urgency, while the rest are asked to adjust to their new reality. — Eddie Scarry, Washington Examiner, "Government For the Few," 29 Apr. 2021 Every juvenile being taken into custody by law enforcement in Middlesex County is of the utmost concern to Prosecutor Ciccone and this young person is no different. — Lydia Wang, refinery29.com, "A Viral Video Captures Police Arresting A Black Teenager For Riding His Bike," 21 Apr. 2021 At no time has any one of us experienced or witnessed anything less than the utmost professionalism and respect. — Kristine Phillips, USA TODAY, "Matt Gaetz's associate is expected to plead guilty in sex trafficking: What that means for the congressman," 10 Apr. 2021 Along with all the TV and all the filmmaking, and all the storytelling, the whole other end, with all of the protocols, was of utmost importance. — Chris Lee, Vulture, "The Director of the Oscars Says This Year’s Show Will Be ‘Completely Different’ From Any Other," 20 Apr. 2021 Conveying this to the customer is of the utmost importance. — Michael Polk, Rolling Stone, "How to Ensure That Your Branding and Images Click," 9 Apr. 2021 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun He is expected to do his utmost in the coming weeks to prevent his opponents from finalizing a deal. — NBC News, "Israel's Netanyahu misses deadline to form a new government," 5 May 2021 He is expected to do his utmost in the coming weeks to prevent his opponents from finalizing a deal. — Josef Federman, chicagotribune.com, "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fails to form government by deadline, putting his political future in question," 4 May 2021 Covid victims to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi last week, vowing to enhance China’s cooperation with the country to fight the pandemic, while China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said last month that China would do the utmost to help India. — Quartz, "China’s wolf warriors are undermining Beijing’s empathetic messaging on India’s Covid-19 crisis," 4 May 2021 France, for its part, did its utmost to protect Mr. Déby himself, deploying troops to Chad in 2008 and 2019 to defeat rebels who tried to unseat him. — Declan Walsh, New York Times, "Idriss Déby Dies at 68; Poor Herder’s Son Became Chad’s Longtime Autocrat," 20 Apr. 2021 Apfel had the distinct impression that the prison authorities were doing their utmost to shirk responsibility, to leave a dying man out in the cold. — STAT, "States with springtime Covid-19 surges appear to have turned a corner," 14 Apr. 2021 But some in right-wing media keep doing their utmost to make this tragedy about Floyd’s drug use and troubled life, in what seems like an attempt to absolve Chauvin long before the jury reaches a verdict. — Washington Post, "How right-wing media keeps smearing George Floyd with the racist ‘no angel’ narrative," 7 Apr. 2021 However, the essential of the Games will remain unchanged, as athletes give their utmost and inspire the world with transcendent performances. — Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, "International Spectators Barred From Tokyo Olympics," 20 Mar. 2021 China has done its utmost to thwart investigations into the origins of the virus. — Jerry Dunleavy, Washington Examiner, "Circumstantial evidence of human error 'far outweighs' natural outbreak of COVID-19, Matt Pottinger says," 21 Feb. 2021

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