being the last in a series of infinitely decreasing or increasing values, amounts, etc.
(of an item in a series of occurrences, planned events, things used, etc., that is thought of as being infinitely large) being the latest, or most recent.
This is the nth time I've told you to eat slowly.
maths of or representing an unspecified ordinal number, usually the greatest in a series of values
the nth power
informal being the last, most recent, or most extreme of a long series
for the nth time, eat your lunch!
informal to the utmost extreme; as much as possible
First recorded in 1850–55; N (the symbol in mathematics) + -th 2
Use the adjective nth to mean "utmost" or "most recent in a very long series," like when you have to ask your brother for the nth time to please stop borrowing money from your piggy bank. Mathematicians use this term to represent an indefinite number: "Here's a formula for finding nth roots." In everyday speech, nth satisfies a similar need — it stands for an unspecific large number. So you might complain that it's the nth time this month you've missed the bus, or that a popular TV show is stupid to the nth degree. Nth has been used in this way since the late 1800s, from n as an abbreviation of number.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One judge said the claimed difference with gambling “is sophistry to the nth degree. . . . It’s still the house.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
So what’s the added value of this nth recording of the Sondheim masterwork?
From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
“I mean, he had this big binder with different pens, different colors, highlighters. He just went to the nth degree and so I was like, ‘Wow.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2023
Now imagine that taken to the nth degree: An election happens, a politician says something that they would never say, and then that spreads over WhatsApp or whatever.
From Slate ● Mar. 24, 2023
She blinks a few times, considering, then Isabelle comes up and announces that the regional manager will be visiting our store tomorrow, so everything has to be “zoned to the nth degree.”
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
“Ted Lasso” distilled this theme to the Nth degree without resorting to supernatural activity.
From Seattle Times ● May 31, 2023
Nth Cycle's technology extracts nickel, not just from pulverised old batteries, but also from the clumps of rock and metals dug out of mines.
From BBC ● May 2, 2022
“Rather than see that as selfish navel-gazing, people here see it as a responsible thing to do, to examine yourself to the Nth degree, and perfect yourself.”
From The Guardian ● Dec. 1, 2017
Prine’s loyal following includes no less than Bob Dylan, who told an interviewer in 2009, “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mind-trips to the Nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2016
I had an idea of getting a place as botanist on Coprolite’s survey of the Nth parallel, and I wrote to New Haven for letters.
From Stories by American Authors, Volume 8 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
