- supreme
- supreme adj Supreme, superlative, transcendent, surpassing, preeminent, peerless, incomparable can all mean highest in a scale of values. All of these words may be interchangeable when used rhetorically or bombastically with the resulting loss in definiteness, but all are capable of discriminative use in which they carry distinctive implications and connotations.Supreme is applicable to what is not only the highest in rank, power, or quality but has no equals in that status, all others of the same class or kind being inferior in varying degrees{
the Supreme Court of the United States
}{Shakespeare is generally regarded as the supreme dramatic poet
}{I did not detect in his playing the fire and dash that I look for in the work of a supreme virtuoso— Sargeant
}{he smiled again with an air of supreme contentment. "It's the first time I've ever done what I wanted to do"— Bromfield
}Superlative is applicable to whatever, by comparison with all other things of the same kind or with all other manifestations of the same quality, admits of no superior especially in commendatory qualities, for superlative may admit equals but it excludes superiors{the superlative genius of Goethe
}{his superlative rudeness
}{what makes him a great artist is a high fervor of spirit, which produces a superlative, instead of a comparative, clarity of vision— Galsworthy
}{there is a smaller proportion than usual of superior books and a minuscule number of superlative ones— Kinkead
}{enhanced with a superlative commentary ... it is commendable in all respects— McCarten
}Transcendent and surpassing are applicable to whatever goes beyond everything else of its kind or in its quality; both can connote an exceeding even of the superlative, but transcendent suggests realization of the ideal, and surpassing suggests almost inconceivable attainment{the transcendent acting of Duse
}{Cleopatra's reputation for transcendent beauty
}{his surpassing skill in surgery
}{the geometric pattern is of a surpassing intricacy— Rovere
}{[his] native gifts are perhaps not of a transcendent kind; they have their roots in a quality of mind that ought to be as frequent as it is modest— Trilling
}Preeminent is applicable to what goes beyond all others in achieving distinction or eminence; it implies both superlativeness and uniqueness within the limits indicated, but it seldom carries a suggestion of direct supremacy or transcendency{the preeminent general in that war
}{the preeminent film of the year
}{the preeminent example of magnanimity
}{although his own case is preeminent, there are a sufficient number of others— J. D. Adams
}Peerless and incomparable both imply the absence of equals but, commonly, peerless connotes the absence of superiors and incomparable connotes the impossibility of being equaled; while both normally refer to commendatory qualities, incomparable is also freely referable to qualities that merit condemnation{a peerless performance of Hamlet
}{Philip Sidney, called the peer-less one of his age—Quiller-Couch
}{the incomparable refinement with which he has drawn this interior with its two youthful figures— Binyon
}{nothing—simply nothing at all—transcends a cat's incomparable insincerity— Theodore Sturgeon
}{peerless among women; perfect in beauty, perfect in courtliness— H. O. Taylor
}Analogous words: *chief, foremost, leading, capital: predominant, *dominant, paramount, sovereign
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
