Meaning & use
upmost
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Highest in position, at the very top.
Grammar: Used before a noun, mainly for physical position: the upmost branches.
The bird sat on the upmost branch.
He climbed to the upmost floor.
Snow covered the upmost peaks.
adjectivebefore a nouninformal
Greatest in degree, used wrongly or loosely for utmost.
Grammar: Many writers treat this as an error: write utmost importance, not upmost importance.
Some writers wrongly say the matter is of upmost importance.
In careful writing, replace upmost with utmost here.
A common slip is upmost care instead of utmost care.
Common combinations
- upmost floor
- The office is on the upmost floor.
- upmost branch
- A nest sat on the upmost branch.
- upmost shelf
- The jar was on the upmost shelf.
- upmost layer
- Remove the upmost layer of paper.
Synonyms and how they differ
- uppermost
- Uppermost is the more standard word for highest in position and is preferred in careful writing.
- topmost
- Topmost is a common word for the highest of several things, and more natural than upmost.
- highest
- Highest is everyday and works in any context, whereas upmost is rare.
- utmost
- Utmost means greatest in degree and is the right choice for importance or care.
Opposites
Word family
- uppermost adjective
- highest in position or importance
- topmost adjective
- highest in position
- up adverb
- toward a higher place
Commonly confused: upmost or utmost?
upmost vs utmost
Utmost means greatest in degree, as in utmost importance, while upmost refers rarely to height.
Practice
Which sentence is correct?
Choose one answer.
Utmost is the standard word for greatest degree. Upmost is a common mistake, and the other forms are misspellings or odd variants.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “upmost”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.