to the nth degree
3
6.1
- idiom
:
hasta el máximo grado
- She organized the event to the nth degree, ensuring every detail was perfect.
- takes it to the nth degree
- planned to the nth degree
This statement is absurd to the NTH degree.
- This statement is absurd to the NTH degree.
- And I'm competitive to the NTH degree, but it became more than a game for me.
- But if you're concerned with performance of your programme to the NTH degree, these overheads can begin to tell.
- You're going to go through all of those delights to the NTH degree, man.
- And I like went to the NTH degree to make sure of that.
- Every element of, of filmmaking was done to the NTH degree.
- And yeah, McCarthyism to the NTH degree.
- It's separation to the NTH degree.
Examples
-
The game is glossy and shiny to the nth degree.
Blog text (7) -
And I'm competitive to the NTH degree, but it became more than a game for me.
-
And I like went to the NTH degree to make sure of that.
-
I will protect you to the NTH degree, right.
-
Let's face it, the man understands the term "dominant male" to the nth degree.
-
I'm neurotic to the nth degree.
-
Lori, you are sharing my pain/paranoia to the nth degree.
Blog text (18) -
He switched it off and lay in bed, planning the next day to the nth degree, rehearsing his actions.
Fiction book (1994) -
I will argue that it represents not genuine postmodernism at all, but modernism drawn out to the nth degree.
Academic text (1992) -
And in content, every great piece of literature, anything that can really be classified as literature, is... of some moral greatness, and I think this fails to the nth degree.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To a very great degree
∞
1.0
Completely, with nothing left out
236
3.6
Completely, to show that something is very strong or very great
86
4.0
Of the highest degree or importance
82
1.4
As far as you can
57
4.6
To a very great degree
24
3.9
Do something as fully as possible
14
8.0
To a very great degree
13
7.7
As much as possible
10
5.4
To a very great degree that you cannot count
7
7.5
To a much greater degree than is normal
3
6.2
As much as possible
1
9.2
To make something as intense or dramatic as possible
Antonyms
How Extreme
3
6.1
∞
1.0
144
3.4
- Informal
∞
2.1
816
2.0
885
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression combines 'nth' (an indefinite/high ordinal) with 'degree' (extent), so a learner who knows those constituents can infer it means an unspecified or very high extent. However, the use of a mathematical variable as an intensifier is a metaphorical, language-specific extension and the precise idiomatic force ('to the greatest possible extent') may not be fully predictable without prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
To the nth degree may come from math, where nth stands for any number and degree shows how many times you multiply something. So it gives the picture of making something larger and larger, and now means 'to the greatest degree'.