Lextrémité

L'extrémité is a French noun meaning the end, tip, or outermost point of something, as well as a figurative limit or extreme. The standard spelling uses l' before a vowel; lextrémité is not considered standard in formal French.

Etymology and sense: The term derives from Latin extrēmĭtas through Old French extrémité, related to extrēmus, meaning outermost or farthest. In modern usage it covers both literal ends (the tip of a pencil, the distal end of a limb) and abstract limits (the edge of a region or the extreme of a problem).

Usage across fields: In biology and medicine, l'extrémité refers to a bodily end or limb end, with expressions such as extrémité proximale and extrémité distale. In mathematics and geometry, it denotes endpoints of a segment or the boundary of a set (the extremities of an interval). In geography or everyday language, it can describe the farthest points of a territory or the outer edge of something, such as the extremities of a coastline or the extremity of an object.

Examples: l'extrémité d'un crayon, les extrémités des doigts, l'extrémité d'une route isolée. In English contexts, the term corresponds to endpoint, boundary, edge, or tip, depending on the discipline.

See also: endpoint, boundary, edge, tip, extremity.