Upmost or utmost?
upmost is an adjective meaning “Uppermost”; utmost is an adjective meaning “The most extreme; greatest, ultimate”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) utmost is about 30 times as common as upmost.
What is the difference between upmost and utmost?
| upmost | utmost | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Uppermost Eggcorn of utmost | The most extreme; greatest, ultimate The greatest possible capability, extent, or quantity; maximum |
| Example | none recorded | the utmost assiduity |
| Pronunciation | /ˈʌpmoʊst/ [ˈʌʔmoʊst] | /ˈʌtməʊ̯st/ /ˈʌtməst/ /ˈʌtmoʊ̯st/ |
| In writing | about once in every 7 million words | 4.1 times per million words |
Sources: upmost and utmost in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of upmost and utmost
upmost
- 1
Uppermost
- 2
Eggcorn of utmost
utmost
- 1
The most extreme; greatest, ultimate
the utmost assiduity
- 2
The greatest possible capability, extent, or quantity; maximum
at the utmost to the utmost
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, upmost or utmost?
upmost appears about once in every 7 million words; utmost 4.1 times per million words.
upmost about once in every 7 million wordsutmost 4.1 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search upmost vs utmost?
“upmost vs utmost” is searched about 8,100 times a month on Google and 240 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“utmost vs upmost”, “upmost or utmost”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.