Utmost

 WORD OF THE DAY

utmost / adjective / UT-mohst

Definition
1a: situated at the farthest or most distant point
1b: extreme
2: of the greatest or highest degree, quantity, number, or amount

Examples
"Getting his body back to 100% is of the utmost importance for Burrow. As he continues nursing a pinky injury he suffered late in the season…."
— Zack Nagy, Sports Illustrated, 4 Feb. 2022

Homebuyers looking for the utmost privacy or an opportunity for multi-generational living should check out a property recently listed for $29.5 million in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami.
— Robyn A. Friedman, sun-sentinel.com, 10 Feb. 2022

Did You Know?
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.
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.