Word of the Day

Saturday, January 13, 2001

acme

\ACK-mee\ , noun;

The highest point of something; the highest level or degree attainable.

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Quotes:

In 1990 Iraq's Saddam Hussein aimed to corner the world oil market through military aggression against Kuwait (also aimed at Saudi Arabia); control of oil, a product of land, represented the acme of his ambitions.

-- Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Virtual State

So we drove around looking at daffodils and exploring countryside hamlets instead of lakeside tourist traps. These should not be scorned, however, by a browser interested in the curious categories of British humor, one of which achieves a kind of acme in funny postcards on sale in such places. "The weather's here," went one postcard I saw, "I wish you were lovely."

-- Joseph Lelyveld, "The Poet's Landscape", New York Times, August 3, 1986

Origin:

Acme comes from Greek akme, point, highest point, culmination.