Definition of FOREMOST

foremost

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.

Adjective

  • Highest in rank, importance, or position; leading.

Examples

  • Foremost among the workers’ grievances was the company’s failure to address the many safety issues in the plant.
  • Her FOREMOST strategy was always to save her ’S’ tiles for powerful plural plays.
  • The exhibition features works by the country’s foremost artists.

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

first, first of all, first off, firstly, frontmost, world-class, especially, forwardmost, front, greatest, leading, paramount, particularly, primary, principal, top

Scrabble Score: 13

foremost: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
foremost: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
foremost: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 14

foremost: valid Words With Friends Word