Extrémité

Extrémité is a French noun meaning the end, tip, or farthest point of something, as well as the outermost part of a body or object. It denotes a terminal position rather than a middle section and is used across several fields. The word is feminine: l’extrémité; plural extrémités. Etymology traces to Latin extremitas, from extrēmus meaning outermost or farthest.

In anatomy and biology, extrémité often refers to a limb or the end portion of a structure, such as the upper or lower extremity of the body. It can describe distal parts of organs, appendages of animals, or tips of organs. In botany and zoology, the term may denote terminal portions of structures or limbs.

In geometry, engineering, and everyday language, extrémité serves to indicate the endpoint of a segment, ray, or cable—l’extrémité d’un câble, for example. It also appears in geographic or descriptive phrases to mark the farthest points of a region, such as l’extrémité nord du pays. Literary and journalistic usage often employs phrases like à l’extrémité du monde to evoke remote locations.

Usage notes: extrémité coexists with synonyms such as bout, pointe, and extrémité sometimes emphasizes a more distant or terminal sense. In English translations, the term corresponds to endpoint, extremity, or tip, depending on context. The word is common in technical writing, medicine, geography, and descriptive prose.