:a well-known phrase that expresses a general truth about life or a rule about behavior箴言;格言;座右铭
My mother's favorite maxim [=saying] was “Don't count your chickens before they hatch.” [=don't assume that things will happen the way you expect them to happen]我母亲最喜欢的格言是“鸡蛋未孵出,先别数小鸡”。
it's a common maxim that “a watched pot never boils,” but that's not literally true
Recent Examples on the WebThat famous maxim is an all-important first step to effective branding. Roger Boutin, Forbes, 17 Aug. 2022 This was the maxim that guided the design process for Oliver's apartment. Mackenzie Schmidt, PEOPLE.com, 12 July 2022 Moore’s Law is the maxim, coined by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, that correctly predicted the number of transistors in computer chips would double at quick intervals.oregonlive, 29 July 2022 That all-American maxim, which attempts to parse the seemingly conflicting power of the individual and the collective, finds its first iteration in drawings begun around 1997 and continuing today.Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2022 The sport as a whole has followed in their wake, hewing ever more closely to Brian Clough’s rather gnarled maxim that if God had intended soccer to be played in the clouds, there would be substantially more grass up there.New York Times, 22 July 2022 And that maxim is what Talusan appreciates about the property. Noah Lederman, SPIN, 27 June 2022 And while the Hollywood maxim is that the show must go on, in a few instances real-world concerns have intruded upon the ceremony in a way that forced organizers to alter its schedule, including last year's delay due to a global pandemic. Brian Lowry, CNN, 26 Mar. 2022 An old maxim of mountaineering goes like this: Getting to the summit is optional, getting down is mandatory. Gregory Thomas, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 June 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English maxime, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin maxima, from Latin, feminine of maximus, superlative of magnus large — more at much
ADJECTIVE | VERB + MAXIM | MAXIM + VERBADJECTIVE➤general, simple普遍的真理;簡單的準則➤famous名言➤old古老的格言◇As the old maxim goes, 'A picture is worth a thousand words'.就像一句古老的格言所說的:“一圖勝千言。”VERB + MAXIM➤apply, follow, heed遵循準則◇If you follow a few simple maxims, your business should be a success.依照幾條簡單的準則行事,你的生意就會成功。➤quote引用格言MAXIM + VERB➤apply, hold原則適用/有效◇The golden rule is to pay attention. The same maxim applies to parenting.黃金法則是要留心注意,同樣的原則也適用於養育子女。