SUPERLATIVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Superlative

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/sʊpˈərlətɪv/ Listen

adjective

Superlative adj.

1.

Lifted up to the highest degree; most eminent; surpassing all other; supreme; as, superlative wisdom or prudence; a woman of superlative beauty; the superlative glory of the divine character.

2.

(Gram.) Expressing the highest or lowest degree of the quality, manner, etc., denoted by an adjective or an adverb. The superlative degree is formed from the positive by the use of -est, most, or least; as, highest, most pleasant, least bright.

noun

Superlative n.

1.

That which is highest or most eminent; the utmost degree.

2.

(Gram.)

(a)

The superlative degree of adjectives and adverbs; also, a form or word by which the superlative degree is expressed; as, strongest, wisest, most stormy, least windy, are all superlatives.

Absolute superlative, a superlative in an absolute rather than in a comparative or exclusive sense. See Elative.

See images of 'Superlative'

Etymology of 'Superlative'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Superlative" Quotes from Famous Books

... devour me; for whom do we labour? I know that we are obliged to act as we do; I know, too, that we cannot do better; but should we rejoice at the fatal necessity which pushes us on to exert an action comparatively good and which will unavoidably end in a superlative evil?" ...

— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... claims to preeminence among recognized forms of verse will soon convince any intelligent reader of its superlative worth and beauty. ...

— The Re-echo Club • Carolyn Wells

... a third day's work in these parts as soon as possible. I should like to get to the third degree of comparison, and perhaps the superlative will turn up trumps for me somehow. Are there many more young women in the place as pretty as Mrs. Winburn? This marrying complaint is very catching, ...

— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes

... barefacedly called a bed, but which is nothing more nor less than a beggarman's shakedown, where the smell, the heat, the filth, and above all, the vermin, are intolerable to the very farthest stretch of the superlative degree. As soon as their eyes begin to close here, they are roused by the bell-man, and summoned at the hour of twelve—first washing themselves as aforesaid, in the lake, and then adjourning to the prison which I am about to describe. There is not on earth, with the exception of pagan rites,—and ...

— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton

... divinity is kalou, which, while used to denote the people's highest notion of a god, is also constantly heard as a qualificative of any thing great or marvellous, or, according to Hazlewood's Dictionary, 'anything superlative, whether good or bad.'... Often the word sinks into a mere exclamation, or becomes an expression of flattery. 'You are a kalou!' or, 'Your countrymen are gods!' is often uttered by the natives, ...

— The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) • Sir James George Frazer

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