foremost

[fawr-mohst, -muh st, fohr-] /ˈfɔrˌmoʊst, -məst, ˈfoʊr-/

adjective, adverb

first in place, order, rank, etc.:

the foremost surgeons.

Origin

before 1000; fore¹ + -most; replacing Middle English, Old English formest, equivalent to form(a) first, variant of fruma (compare Latin prīmus) + -est -est

Synonyms

primary, prime, chief, principal, paramount.

Examples from the web for foremost

As a dramatic writer, he has been frequently criticized, and cannot be placed in the foremost rank.
He is said to be one of the foremost interpreters of that composer's works.
At the wedding, my new job was not foremost in my mind.
Rabinowitz is among the world's foremost jaguar experts.
Not that he wasn't first and foremost a pragmatist, mind you, despite his aesthetic sense.
First and foremost is the idea of the search for a place to call home, individually and collectively.
Stellar is the foremost provider of advanced data recovery software.
Among the antiquities of a great nation, its tombs always hold a foremost place.
Net-zero-energy building is first and foremost about radical energy-use efficiency.
Tonga's judiciary remains answerable first and foremost to the king, not the elected government.

British Dictionary definitions for foremost

foremost

/ˈfɔːˌməʊst/

adjective, adverb

first in time, place, rank, etc

Word Origin

Old English formest, from forma first; related to Old Saxon formo first, Old High German fruma advantage

Word Origin and History for foremost

adj.

Old English fyrmest "earliest, first, most prominent," from Proto-Germanic *formo- (related to Old English fruma "beginning"), superlative of the root of fore + additional superlative suffix -est. Cf. -most, and cf. also Old Frisian formest, Gothic frumists. Altered on the assumption that it is a compound of fore and most.

Idioms and Phrases with foremost

foremost

see: first and foremost