"He is a man of the utmost integrity."
"He is a man of utmost integrity."

Today I was told that either is correct. It had been my understanding (before today) that "the" should precede "utmost" unless "utmost" is preceded by a possessive, as in "giving his utmost."

I've been searching for a definitive rule but find only examples reflecting what I had thought to be correct (above).

One source said "the utmost" should be used only when the intent is that the person described is surpassed by no one in whatever quality is being described. If that is so, it seems "the utmost" would almost never be appropriate usage -- although when a person is being commended for dedication, saying "she is a person of the utmost dedication" to an organization seems, to me, appropriate, since if she is worthy of recognition for outstanding dedication, she would probably have reached a level of dedication perhaps equaled by others in the organization but surpassed by no one in the organization.

Can anyone help with this?

Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage says nothing about it. And to be even-handed I looked in Fiske's Dictionary of Disagreeable English; nothing there either. I'd say there is no issue here. Use whatever seems natural.

Goofy, I see you've removed your extra "o".

The source saying that "the utmost" should be used when the person being described is surpassed by no one makes sense. It would be like using worse and the worst, I'd think. Yet when I read your sentence, either way sounds fine. "The utmost integrity" would just mean he couldn't be surpassed in integrity, and yet I don't think anyone would expect that someone would actually measure who has "the utmost" in integrity. It would be a figure of speech, I think. I hope this makes sense because I was musing as I was writing this.

quote:

It would be like using worse and the worst

In my book "worse" is usually an adjective whereas "worst" is usually a noun. As such "worst" would take an article and "worse" would not.

E.g. "Fred is a worse player than Charlie" but "Fred's performance was the worst ever"

Whether "utmost" equates with "worst" I am not sure.

Hm. I thought "worse" was a comparative adjective for two things (things such as Fred and Charlie) and "worst" was a comparative adjective for three or more things?

And indeed it is saranita. What Richard has shown isn't a use of "worst" as a noun, it is an ellipsis where the word "player" has been omitted in the second half of the sentence. It is still an adjective.

quote:

What Richard has shown isn't a use of "worst" as a noun, it is an ellipsis where the word "player" has been omitted in the second half of the sentence. It is still an adjective.

If there was an omission, it would be "performance".

According to Wordweb ( fallible source, I agree) the uses of "worst" as a noun are:

1. The least favourable outcome
"the worst that could happen"

2. The greatest damage or wickedness of which one is capable
"the invaders did their worst"; "so pure of heart that his worst is another man's best"

3. The weakest effort or poorest achievement one is capable of
"it was the worst he had ever done on a test"

And I think that "worst" is a superlative, not a comparative, when used as an adjective.

True it was an ellipsis of performance rather than player and true it was a superlative (I didn't want to confuse the issue of noun/adjective.)

However I still contend that this usage is essentially an adjective with ellipsis rather than a noun as such.

The examples you give now only partially correspond to the one you gave before. It's arguable that "the worst that could happen" is still ellipsis (with "thing" omitted).

The second pair of examples, and the third single example are certainly more likely to be a noun usage as its hard to think of a noun that could be slotted into them.

I am with Bob. All three of Richard's examples are ellipses, and at the same time are superlatives. Perhaps we should say 'superlative ellipses'.
On the original question, there seems no right or wrong in saying 'utmost integrity' or 'the utmost integrity'. I suppose the lends emphasis, but as a superlative that should be unecessary, if not frank tautology.

quote:

All three of Richard's examples are ellipses, and at the same time are superlatives.

They are actually Wordweb's examples, not mine.