日本語道場

Nihongo Dojo — N3 → N2

Grammar

N2

~極まりない

~kiwamarinai

extremely (negative)

When to use it

Use ~極まりない in formal writing and set speeches to say something is extreme to the point of intolerable — almost always a negative evaluation (danger, rudeness, inefficiency, unfairness). It is the written-register counterpart of とても〜だ, common in reports, complaint letters, and公式コメント; in casual conversation it sounds theatrical. Note the counterintuitive form: despite the negative ~ない, the meaning is emphatically affirmative, and ~極まる means exactly the same thing.

Formation

  • Na-adjective: stem + 極まりない → 危険極まりない、失礼極まりない、不愉快極まりない (no な)
  • Kango nouns with adjectival force: noun + 極まりない → 遺憾極まりない、不見識極まりない (only nouns that express a quality/state; not 会議極まりない)
  • I-adjectives: not used. Use ~ことこの上ない / ~限りだ instead (×高い極まりない → 高いことこの上ない)
  • Verbs: not used. Use ~てやまない、~限りだ for emotional emphasis
  • Inflection: attributive 危険極まりない状況、adverbial 非効率極まりなく、sentence-final 無責任極まりない。Variant 極まる is fully interchangeable: 危険極まる作業

Examples

  • The other party's handling of it was extremely rude.

  • A price-cut demand with no basis is utterly unjustified.

  • Deploying to production without testing is an extremely reckless call.

  • The meetings are run so inefficiently that we never reach a conclusion.

  • A spec change right before the deadline is deeply regrettable.