foremost
Meanings
Adjective Satellite
- ranking above all others
- "the foremost figure among marine artists"
- preceding all others in spatial position
- "the foremost compartment of the ship"
- situated closest to the bow
- "the foremost compartment of the ship"
Adverb
- prominently forward
- "he put his best foot foremost"
- before anything else
Adj
- Positioned in front of (all) others in space, most forward.
- Coming before (all) others in time.
- Of the highest rank or position; of the greatest importance; of the highest priority.
- Closest to the bow.
Adv
- In front, prominently forward.
- First in time.
- Most importantly.
Origin / Etymology
From Old English formest, fyrmest (“earliest, first, most prominent”), from Proto-Germanic *frumistaz, from the locative stem *fur-, *fr- + the superlative suffix *-umistaz, stem ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pr-. The suffix *-umistaz was a compound suffix, created from the rarer comparative suffix *-umô (as in Old English fruma) + the regular superlative suffix *-istaz (English -est); *-umô in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-.
Cognate with Old Frisian formest, Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌿𐌼𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (frumists). See for, first and Old English fruma for more. Partially cognate to primus, from Proto-Indo-European *pr- + Latin superlative suffix -imus, from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-.
A comparative former was back-formed analogically, leaving the m from *-umô in place. Later the Old English suffix complex -(u)m-est was conflated with the word most through folk etymology, so that the word is now interpreted as fore + -most.
Synonyms
especially, first, first of all, first off, firstly, forwardmost, front, frontmost, greatest, leading, paramount, particularly, primary, principal, top, world-class
Scrabble Score: 13
foremost is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordforemost is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
foremost is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary