extremity

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The outermost or farthest point or portion.
• noun The greatest or utmost degree.
• noun Grave danger, necessity, or distress.
• noun An extreme or severe measure.
• noun A bodily limb.
• noun The hands and feet.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The utmost point or side; the end or the verge; the point or border that terminates a thing: as, the extremities of a bridge; the extremities of a lake.
• noun In anatomy and zoology, a limb or an organ of locomotion; an appendage or appendicular part of the body.
• noun The highest degree; the most intense form: as, to suffer the extremity of pain or cruelty.
• noun Extreme or utmost need, distress, or difficulty; the greatest degree of destitution or helplessness; specifically, death: as, a city besieged and reduced to extremity; man's extremity is God's opportunity.
• noun plural Extreme measures: as, the commander was compelled to proceed to extremities.
• noun Synonyms Extremity, End, Extreme, border, termination. Extremity is opposed to middle, end to beginning, and extreme to mean or moderate degree. Extreme is now used only in figurative senses; the others are literal or figurative. Extreme generally indicates that which is excessive, exaggerated, or extravagant: as, he was dressed in the extreme of the fashion; “avoid extremes,” Pope, Essay on Criticism, l. 385. For the direct expression of a great distress, etc., extremity is used, and extreme is rare or obsolete.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The extreme part; the utmost limit; the farthest or remotest point or part.
• noun (Zoöl.) One of locomotive appendages of an animal; a limb; a leg or an arm of man.
• noun The utmost point; highest degree; most aggravated or intense form.
• noun The highest degree of inconvenience, pain, or suffering; greatest need or peril; extreme need; necessity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The most extreme or furthest point of something.
• noun An extreme measure.
• noun A hand or foot.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the outermost or farthest region or point
• noun the greatest or utmost degree
• noun an extreme condition or state (especially of adversity or disease)
• noun that part of a limb that is farthest from the torso
• noun an external body part that projects from the body