maximal

Largest, greatest (in magnitude), highest, most.

Adjective

  1. Largest, greatest (in magnitude), highest, most.
    • The organification of iodide in the thyroid gland was described using a second order rate constant (KthybindC, /nmol/L*hr/kg thyroid weight) fitted to provide thyroidal iodide stores near the maximal value, which...
    • In the dependency graphs above, we can see that the maximal number of incomplete dependencies in each structure is five, while processing the most embedded noun[…]. - 2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Locality in...

    Synonyms: extreme maximum ultimate ferocious exquisite intense almighty greatest highest maximal passing raging utmost uttermost

    Antonyms: minimal

  2. Larger than any previous term in the sequence.
    • In the sequence (1, 2, 10, 5, 12, 6), the fifth term, f(5) = 12, is a maximal term, as each of the first 4 terms are smaller than 12.

    Antonyms: minimal

  3. Such that no other element is greater (with respect to the given partial order).
    • With respect to the ordering induced by set-theoretic inclusion, the set #92;#123;#92;#123;2#92;#125;,#92;#123;1,2#92;#125;,#92;#123;2,3#92;#125;#92;#125; has two maximal elements: #92;#123;1,2#92;#125; and...

    Antonyms: minimal

Origin

From maximum + -al.

Forms

max.

Related

maximative

Derived

bimaximal halfmaximal maximal ideal maximalism maximalist maximality maximalize maximally maximal munch multimaximal nonmaximal perimaximal postmaximal premaximal submaximal supermaximal supramaximal tribimaximal trimaximal ultramaximal

Noun

  1. The element of a set with the greatest magnitude.
  2. Said of an ideal of a ring or a filter of a lattice: that it is as large as it can be without being trivial (improper).
  3. Said of a set of well-formed formulas: that it is as large as it can be without being inconsistent; i.e. that for any well-formed formula φ, the set contains either φ or ~φ.

Forms

maximals max.

Synonyms

maximum