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maximal

adjective

Simple meaning

The greatest or most complete or best possible.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

maksuhmuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmæksəməl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. The greatest or most complete or best possible

  2. Largest, greatest (in magnitude), highest, most.

  3. mathematicsof a sequence

    Larger than any previous term in the sequence.

  4. mathematicsof an element of a poset

    Such that no other element is greater (with respect to the given partial order).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The greatest or most complete or best possible

Used this way, maximal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • top , more casual, better suited to speech than writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use maximal

  • “The team tried to achieve maximal effort for their final performance.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Greatest / larger

maximal ratemaximal effect

Other combinations

maximal oxygenmaximal exercisemaximal valuemaximal responsemaximal heartmaximal number

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • maximallyadverbDerived adverb

    To a maximal degree.

  • maximizeverbDerived verb

    Make as big or large as possible.

  • maximiseverbDerived verb

    Make the most of.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.