paramount

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paramount

adjective arch, beyond compare, beyond comparison, cardinal, champion, chief, crowning, extraordinary, first, foremost, grand, great, greatest, head, hegemonic, hegemonical, highest, incomparable, inimitable, leading, main, master, matchless, memorable, model, notable, peerless, preeminent, prepollent, prepotent, primary, prime, principal, prominent, regnant, reigning, salient, second to none, significant, sovereign, summus, supereminent, superior, superlative, supreme, top, transcendent, transcendental, unequaled, unmatched, unparalleled, unrivaled, unsurpassed, without parallel, worthy of notice, worthy of remark

PARAMOUNT. That which is superior.
2. It is usually applied to the highest lord of the fee, of lands, tenements, or hereditaments. F. N. B. 135. Where A lets lands to B, and he underlets them to C, in this case A is the paramount, and B is the mesne landlord. Vide Mesne, and 2 Bl. Com. 91; 1 Tho. Co. Litt. 484, n. 79; Id. 485, n. 81.

References in classic literature ?

He had seen nothing of them since that first day, when the influences of civilization were still paramount within him.

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The domestic cat that had gone wild and that preyed on his pigeons, he found, by the comparative standard, to be of no less paramount menace than a Charles Klinkner in the field of finance, trying to raid him for several millions.

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But a reporter's work is all hack from morning till night, is the one paramount thing of life.

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It was not without some emotion that he looked upon the scene around him, for, in spite of his secluded life, he knew enough of the ancient greatness of his own family to be aware that the time had been when they had held undisputed and paramount sway over all that tract of country.

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An inveterately vindictive woman, she had resolved to discover whatever compromising elements might exist in the governess's secret, and to make them public property (from a paramount sense of duty, of course) among her own circle of friends.

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Why, that Mr Watkins, my dear,' said Mrs Nickleby slowly, as if she were making a tremendous effort to recollect something of paramount importance; 'that Mr Watkins--he wasn't any relation, Miss Knag will understand, to the Watkins who kept the Old Boar in the village; by- the-bye, I don't remember whether it was the Old Boar or the George the Third, but it was one of the two, I know, and it's much the same--that Mr Watkins said, when you were only two years and a half old, that you were one of the most astonishing children he ever saw.

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The paramount importance of these considerations in explaining the immense amount of variation which pigeons have undergone, will be obvious when we treat of Selection.

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We have been long expecting that you would tell us something about the family life of your citizens--how they will bring children into the world, and rear them when they have arrived, and, in general, what is the nature of this community of women and children-for we are of opinion that the right or wrong management of such matters will have a great and paramount influence on the State for good or for evil.

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So far as they touch on this case, absolute loyalty and truth are the ones paramount.

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On the other hand, he believed that the second or slave-morality, where it became paramount, led to degeneration, because it was passive and defensive, wanting merely to keep those who practised it alive.

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Kitty felt a peculiar pleasure in being able now to talk to her mother on equal terms about those questions of such paramount interest in a woman's life.

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There it lay, a tranquil sea or lake without water, if such a simile be admissible, with the day going down upon it: a few birds wheeling here and there: and solitude and silence reigning paramount around.