maxim
nounEtymology
From Anglo-Norman maxime and Middle French maxime, from Late Latin maxima (“axiom”), noun use of the feminine singular form of Latin maximus (apparently as used in the phrase prōpositiō maxima (“greatest premise”)). Doublet of maxima.
Definitions
A self-evident axiom or premise
A self-evident axiom or premise; a pithy expression of a general principle or rule.
A precept
A precept; a succinct statement or observation of a rule of conduct or moral teaching.
- Those maxims lurch through my head like rivers of lava. Those smarmy, know-it-all maxims. Trivia disguised as deeply held wisdom.
Alternative letter-case form of Maxim.
›+ 4 more definitionsshow fewer
A surname
The Maxim gun, a British machine gun of various calibres used by the British army from…
The Maxim gun, a British machine gun of various calibres used by the British army from 1889 until World War I.
- Again we went on, and climbed the false immensity of another ridge, when several rifles and a maxim opened upon us, and very close they were.
Any machine gun that derives from the design pattern of Maxim's patented design
A machine gun
The neighborhood
- synonymcliche
- synonymenthymeme
- synonymproverb
- synonymsaying
- neighboradage
- neighboraphorism
- neighborapophthegm
Derived
maxim worker, Shannon's maxim, Skinner's maxim, submaxim, supermaxim
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at maxim. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at maxim. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
7 hops · closes at maxim
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA