Palmary
adj.capable, joyfulliterary
What it means
Foremost among achievements and especially deserving of admiration.
Reach for it when singling out the finest or most notable success in a record
The architect's palmary work transformed an abandoned depot into a civic hall.
Choose between these
5- warm
finest
for the best example within a named set
not when Finest makes a direct ranking that requires a defensible comparison.
- professional
when exceptional quality can be praised in familiar language
not when Several things may be outstanding, so the word makes no single foremost choice.
- formal
for recognized superiority within a field
not when Preeminent usually describes a person or standing, not one achievement.
- formal
signal
when one success is conspicuously notable among others
not when Many readers know signal chiefly as a noun, making this adjective easy to misread.
- literary
crowning
if an achievement completes and surpasses a body of work
not when Crowning implies culmination, which may be wrong early in a career.
Said against
3- minor
- mediocre
- ignoble
It naturally appears in
3- palmary achievement
Her palmary achievement was opening the collection to every local school.
- palmary example
The bridge remains a palmary example of early steelwork.
- palmary virtue
Patience was his palmary virtue during the difficult negotiations.
Where this comes from
- wiktionary, English adjective sense: outstanding or preeminent opens in a new tab · retrieved 2026-07-26
The definition and the example on this page are written here. The dictionaries above ground which meaning is being described, not the wording.