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In Greek, acme meant a mountain peak, but in English we hardly ever use it in the physical sense. Instead we speak of someone's new job as the acme of her career, or of a certain leap as the acme of classical dance technique. In old Road Runner cartoons, the Acme Company is the provider of every ingenious device imaginable. But the word can't always be taken quite literally as a brand or company name; it's possible, for instance, that something called the Acme Bar & Grill may not be the absolutely highest and best example of a bar and grill. And don't confuse acme with acne, the skin disorder—even though both actually come from the same word.
Examples of acme in a Sentence
Caitlín Doherty, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025
The sentence on Cafe Kestrel’s menu is the battle cry of the heroic rabbit Bigwig, shouted in righteous rage at the leader of the enemy tribe of rabbits, at the acme of the story’s great climactic battle.
—Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2024
The Dior headquarters on the Avenue Montaigne, where the house’s presentations unfolded, were a polished foil to his clothes: gray rooms that were the acme of Belle Époque chic.
—Hamish Bowles, Vogue, 17 Sep. 2024
Liang’s political writings reached something of a creative acme in exile, where he was energized by Japanese intellectuals and their bountiful translations of Western texts.
—Chang Che, The New Yorker, 30 July 2024
The Iraq war, which began 20 years ago, represents the acme of American military folly—second only to the Vietnam War.
—Andrew J. Bacevich, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023
This is the acme of the true fantasy—not attracting a young man with chiseled cheekbones, perfect teeth, and the ability to wear a thick cardigan on a very hot day without even a bead of sweat—but actually being noticed.
—Belinda Luscombe, TIME, 1 May 2024
Compared to previous off-year elections with the same types of races on the ballot, Ohio, New Jersey and Pennsylvania all had their highest turnout since at least 2011, and Kentucky and Virginia came very close to matching their turnout acmes from 2019.
—Tia Yang, ABC News, 21 Dec. 2023
Instead, Trump best serves as a sort of touchstone for understanding McMahon’s particular vein of post-truth, and the acme of society’s larger embrace of the same.
—Dan Greene, The New Yorker, 31 Mar. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Acme.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acme. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
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acme
noun
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