Extreme describes something that goes far beyond what's normal or moderate. When weather forecasters warn of extreme heat, they mean temperatures dangerous enough to make people sick. When a skateboarder attempts an extreme trick, they're trying something so difficult and risky that most people wouldn't dare.

The word often suggests intensity that makes people uncomfortable or pushes boundaries. Extreme poverty means lacking even basic necessities like food and shelter. Extreme opinions are views so far from the middle ground that few people share them. A math problem might have values at the extremes of a range, like 0 and 1,000 rather than numbers clustered around 100.

In sports, extreme activities like rock climbing or whitewater rafting involve real danger and require serious skill. But people sometimes use extreme loosely to make ordinary things sound more exciting: “extreme mini golf” is still just mini golf.

As a noun, the plural extremes describes opposite ends of a spectrum. Someone's mood might swing between extremes, from very happy to very sad. A climate might vary between extremes of hot and cold. Going to extremes means taking things too far, like practicing piano eight hours a day when two hours would be plenty.