Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of chief concern or importance: tending first to one's paramount needs.
- adj. Supreme in rank, power, or authority. See Synonyms at dominant.
- n. One that has the highest rank, power, or authority.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Supreme; superior in power or jurisdiction; chief: as, lord paramount, the supreme lord of a fee, or of lands, tenements, and hereditaments. Under the feudal system the sovereign is lord paramount, of whom all the land in the kingdom is supposed to be held mediately or immediately. This is still the theory of the English law, the ultimate property of all lauds being regarded as in the crown.
- Above; superior to: with a prepositional force.
- Eminent; of the highest order; especially, of chief or superior importance; above all others as regards importance; superior: as, the paramount duty of a citizen.
- n. The chief; the highest in rank or importance; a superior.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having the highest rank or jurisdiction; superior to all others; chief; supreme; preëminent.
- n. The highest or chief.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having superior power and influence
Etymologies
- From Old French, from par, per ("by") + amont, amount ("above, upward"), from Latin ad montem ("to a mountain"); see amount. (Wiktionary)
- Anglo-Norman paramont, above : par, by (from Latin per; see per1 in Indo-European roots) + amont, above, upward; see amount. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“At one extreme of these is the proceeding in rem of the admiralty, which conclusively disposes of the property in its power, and, when it sells or condemns it, does not deal with this or that man's title, but gives a new title paramount to all previous interests, whatsoever they may be.”
“What's harder to accept, from an author for whom character has always been paramount, is the lack of dimensionality in both Hector and Sylvie, who manage to seem vaporous and wooden at the same time ...”
The Surrendered: Summary and book reviews of The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee.
“This line about happiness being paramount is particularly irritating from supposedly religious people.”
The Social Science of Raising Happy Kids - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“He mentioned the word paramount, that the will of the people has to be considered here.”
“In this case also the consideration which becomes paramount is the possibility of pre - serving the unity of the two great races that are joint partners in Confederation.”
“As long as he did not possess her she knew that emotion would remain paramount over judgment – that the longing to win her would triumph over the desire to improve what he had won.”
“Shakspere's influence it might be expected that his would have been the name paramount among the pioneers of English romanticism.”
“So if the lessor be evicted [foreclosed??] of a part of the land demised, by a stranger on title paramount, it operates as a suspension of the rent pro Canto, and the rent is apportioned and payable only in respect of the residue. lb.”
““What’s paramount is getting the toys right,” Ted Koplar, president of St. Louis-based WEP told Daily Variety.”
Pink is the New Blog | Everybody's Business Is My Business » 2010 » June » 07
“The authors say the Aymara speakers see the difference between what is known and not known as paramount, and what is known is what you see in front of you, with your own eyes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paramount’.
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A-R-A Words
It's an odd-looking pattern in English. Please add words if it makes you happy. :) K-POW! Wow @gulyasrobi!
scarab, Arawak, Sahara, Arab, pharaoh, caravan, carat, parachute, arachnid, Saran Wrap, Sarah, tarantella and 492 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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fancy essay words
hiatus, ontology, exegesis, hermeneutics, dialectics, demiurge, ascertain, contention, eschatological, synecdoche, centripetal, centrifugal and 96 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Garbiage
word trash
parapluie, brobdingnagian, plié, segue, laconic, pastoral, phthisis, belly, synecdoche, apotheosis, sepulchral, mollification and 40 more...
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September Words-11337
During the month of September, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has...
flabbergasted, discombobulated, inclination, serendipity, savvy, profound, incarnation, myriad, confiscate, audacity, deciduous, adieu and 79 more...
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Peter's Paramount List of Words
This is my list, but i am open to new words.
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Words I Should Use More Often
Words that I'll use to sound erudite.
fungible, aggrandizement, tete-a-tete, sententious, serendipitous, fortuitous, lugubrious, declivity, propitiatory, volubility, august, tenebrous and 214 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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Words I have to learn
exasperate, felony, weld, fraud, worksheet, ransom, rehearse, preliminary, offshore, parole, infamous, sieve and 436 more...
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This week's words
hand-handled, crouch, hootchy-kootchy, gloriole, glory hole, metempsychosis, doctrinaire, transmigration, celestial, treetop, luxuriant, physic and 102 more...
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
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Barron's 1100 words you need to know ...
acute, aversion, cogent, evince, gist, hostile, inevitable, intrinsic, jettison, lucrative, paramount, prevalent and 8 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for paramount.
mattaustin hello agian i found this word in my old ceramics book by Glen Nelsen.The final potted form is the paramount concern to most artist. Sep 30, 2010
houdini CDO: more important than anything else:
There are many priorities, but reducing the budget deficit is paramount/is of paramount importance. Aug 22, 2008