When you want to give your comment a stylish Greek flavor, use the formal, semi-common word "acme." It's got a very positive tone.

We talk about a person or thing being at the acme of their success, of their popularity, of their career, etc.

And, we say that someone or something has reached or attained its acme. It might be a feeling, a quality, or an effect that reaches its acme. For example, you could say that public interest in Taylor Swift reached its acme when she started dating an NFL player. Here's the New York Times: "Prerelease speculation about Avatar reached its breathless acme."

And, we say that some specific person or creation is the acme of its type. "The Petersens are the acme of wholesome family bluegrass music." Here's the film critic Bosley Crowther: "The Warners have pulled all the stops in making [White Heat] the acme of the gangster-prison film."

"Acme" is also great for sarcasm and exaggeration. "All of that swelling and discoloration? Okay, yeah; he's the acme of health." Here's Alexis Petridis: "Everybody else [performing in the opera Mittwoch aus Licht] behaves as if flying musicians around a former chemical works is the acme of normality."

"For several generations of musicians and music lovers, Steinway has come to represent the acme of piano sound."  
  — Anne Midgette, Washington Post, 5 September 2015

"At some acme of geekiness, Moog Music announced that it has now painstakingly copied the whole [original vintage Moog synthesizer], down to its circuits, for sale in a limited edition." 
  — Jon Pareles, New York Times, 28 April 2014

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If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "acme" without saying "peak" or "zenith."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Some food, drink, toy, product, activity, or other thing) is the acme of (some feeling or quality, like peace, relaxation, satisfaction, frivolity, indulgence, laziness, geekiness, hipsterness, holiday cheer, or childhood joy)."

Example 1: "Inbox zero, which is when there are absolutely no emails that you need to reply to, is the acme of bliss."

Example 2: "Bubbles in a glass of champagne may seem like the acme of frivolity to most people, but in fact they may be considered a fantastic playground for any fluid physicist."
  — Gérard Liger-Belair, as quoted by Richard Gray, The Guardian, 23 December 2016

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "That's A New One!"

I'll define and describe an amusing term that Dictionary.com has recently embraced. See if you can come up with it, and if you need more hints, you can reveal them by highlighting the black bits. To see the answer, scroll all the way down. 

Try this one today:

According to Dictionary.com, it's "a fee charged by a restaurant for serving a cake brought in from outside."

It entered English around the year 1985.

It's one word.

It's modeled after a very similar-looking word that means "a fee charged for serving wine or liquor brought in by the patron."

It starts with the letter... C.

Its number of syllables is...two.

Its first three letters are... CAK.

review this word:

1. Opposites of ACMATIC include

A. INSTINCTIVE and VISCERAL (involving gut feelings rather than logical thoughts).
B. NADIRAL (of the lowest point, of the worst point) and BATHETIC (sinking from grandeur to ordinariness).
C. RHIZOMATIC (hard to uproot) and HYDRA-HEADED (hard to kill, as if regrowing heads after you chop them off).

2. Describing a filmed commercial, Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote, "You see an apple... It is the acme of apples, the most _____ apple you ever saw."

A. apple-y
B. sour-looking
C. worm-riddled

Answers to the review questions: 1. B 2. A From the game: cakeage, modeled after corkage.

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.