Other forms: extremes
Extreme is as far as a thing can go, the very end of the scale. Extreme cold that splits the pipes, extreme heat that softens the road, an extreme case nobody had planned for.
With people and opinions it carries a warning in it: extreme views, extreme measures, taking things to extremes. Extreme sports are the ones with real danger built in, free climbing and big-wave surfing. In writing, the plural noun does a lot of work, in extremes of temperature, the two extremes of the argument, going from one extreme to the other. The adverb extremely is far gentler than the adjective, since extremely tired means no more than very tired. And in the extreme is the formal frame, as in cruel in the extreme.
1adjectiveextremeAt the furthest limit of a scale; very great in degree.
“The expedition trained for months in extreme cold.”
2adjectivedrasticFar beyond what most people think reasonable or safe.
“Closing every road in the county was an extreme response.”
3adjectivepositionFurthest away in position.
“The house stands at the extreme end of the lane.”
4nounpointThe furthest point or degree of something.
“The desert swings between extremes of heat and cold in a single day.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Extreme was borrowed in late Middle English from Old French extreme, from Latin extrēmus. That Latin word is a superlative built on exter, "on the outside", so extrēmus is the outermost of the outer, the point past which there is nothing further out.
Latin
extrēmus
Old French
extreme
English, today
extreme
Borrowed into late Middle English - from Old French extreme, from Latin extrēmus, the superlative of exter.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA