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extreme

/ɪkˈstɹim/adjective, noun

extreme is spelled E-X-T-R-E-M-E. The wrong spelling people search most is extream: about 180 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 39 of all searches for the word. Extreme is an adjective meaning “Of a place, the most remote, farthest or outermost”.

How many letters and syllables are in extreme?

Letters7: E-X-T-R-E-M-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing40 times per million words; the 2,487th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, extream, about 180 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell extreme?

Extreme is spelled E-X-T-R-E-M-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 39 of the searches for extreme in either form.

extremethe right spelling6,860 searches a month
extreama in place of m, m in place of e180 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is extreme?

Extreme appears 40 times per million words in written English, the 2,487th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce extreme?

  • UK /ɪkˈstɹiːm/
  • UK /ɛkˈstɹiːm/
  • US /ɪkˈstɹim/

Extreme has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-extreme.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with extreme?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as extreme from its last stressed vowel (/im/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of extreme

  • extremer comparative
  • more extreme comparative
  • extremest superlative
  • most extreme superlative
  • extremes plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does extreme mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Of a place, the most remote, farthest or outermost.

    At the extreme edges, the coating is very thin.

  2. 2

    In the greatest or highest degree; intense.

    He has an extreme aversion to needles, and avoids visiting the doctor.

  3. 3

    Excessive, or far beyond the norm.

    His extreme love of model trains showed in the rails that criscrossed his entire home.

  4. 4

    Drastic, or of great severity.

    I think the new laws are extreme, but many believe them necessary for national security.

  5. 5

    Of sports, difficult or dangerous; performed in a hazardous environment.

    Television has begun to reflect the growing popularity of extreme sports such as bungee jumping and skateboarding.

  6. 6

    archaicUltimate, final or last.

    the extreme hour of life

noun

  1. 1

    The greatest or utmost point, degree, or condition.

  2. 2

    Each of the things at opposite ends of a range or scale.

    extremes of temperature

  3. 3

    obsoleteOne of the last moments of life.

  4. 4

    A drastic expedient.

    Some people go to extremes for attention on social media.

  5. 5

    obsoleteHardships, straits.

  6. 6

    Either of the two numbers at the ends of a proportion, as 1 and 6 in 1:2=3:6.

adverb

  1. 1

    archaicExtremely.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate extreme?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of extreme: ICE, X.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Extreme in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchextrême (of a place, the most remote, farthest or…), excessif (excessive, or far beyond the norm)
Germanextrem (of a place, the most remote, farthest or…), Extrem (greatest or utmost point, degree or condition)
Portugueseextremo (of a place, the most remote, farthest or…), excessivo (excessive, or far beyond the norm), último (archaic: ultimate, final or last)
Spanishextremo (of a place, the most remote, farthest or…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does extreme come from?

Borrowed into late Middle English from Old French extreme, from Latin extrēmus, the superlative of exter.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after extreme