Paramount means more important than everything else. Of paramount importance, safety is paramount, the paramount consideration.
It is a formal word and is used almost entirely in a small set of phrases: of paramount importance, safety is paramount. In English family law, the paramountcy principle means the child's welfare comes before every other consideration, and it is the foundation of the whole area. Note that paramount is not a matter of degree — something is paramount or it is not, which is why more paramount is not said.
1adjectiveparamountMore important than everything else.
“When children are involved, their safety is paramount.”
synonyms: supreme, overriding
paramount is a quality of supreme importance.
Also accepted in games: supreme
You already know mountain. Paramount holds the same mount: everything else on the list is down at the foot, and this one sits on the top where the whole town can see it.
hooks ontomountain
Anglo-Norman paramont means above, from par plus amont, upward. It arrived as a feudal term for a lord holding directly from the crown, and the sense of supreme importance came from that rank.
Proto-Indo-European
*per- — to go through; to carry forth, fare
Latin
per — by means of, through
Old French
par//per — by
Anglo-Norman
paramont//paramount — paramount, pre-eminent; above
English, today
paramount
Built from
From Anglo-Norman paramont//paramount (“paramount, pre-eminent; above”), from Old French par//per (“by”) + amont//amunt (“upward”). Par is derived from Latin per (“by means of, through”), from Proto-Indo-European per- (“to go through; to carry forth, fare”); amont and amunt are from Latin ad montem (“to the mountain; upward”), from ad (“up to”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂éd (“at; to”)) + montem (the accusative singular of mōns (“mount, mountain”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European men- (“to stand out, tower”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA