の極み【のきわみ】

の極み follows a noun and means "the height of", "the utmost": the feeling or state has gone as far as it can go. The noun is abstract – an emotion, a state, a quality – and the phrase usually closes the sentence with です, だ or である.

A verb or an adjective can't go in front; use the noun.

• × 疲れたの極み → 疲労の極み

With たっする達する, の極み describes a state reaching its limit.

The phrase belongs to speeches, formal letters, public apologies and writing. In conversation you say the same with an adverb: ほんとうに本当にこうえい光栄です, すごくつかれた疲れた.

Set phrases

A handful of nouns account for most uses. こうえい光栄, かんげき感激 and きょうしゅく恐縮 thank or honour someone. つうこん痛恨 is the regret a public figure voices after a defeat or a scandal, and しつれい失礼 and ぶれい無礼 condemn.

ぜいたく贅沢のきわみ極み and びみ美味のきわみ極み also turn up in advertising, where the grand tone is part of the pitch.

の極み or の至り

のいたり至り means the same and is just as formal, but it lives in a few fixed phrases that mostly describe the speaker's own feelings: こうえい光栄のいたり至り, わかげのいたり若気の至り. の極み takes a wider range of nouns, including bad states such as 疲労 and 悲惨, and it can describe anything, not only the speaker.

Before an adjective, use the adverb きわめて極めて, "extremely", from the same verb: きわめて極めてきけん危険だ.