summum bonum

From medieval philosophy; Latin, meaning “the highest good”.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌməm ˈbəʊnəm/, /ˈsʊməm ˈbɒnəm/

summum bonum (plural summa bona)

1. (philosophy) The greatest good; the ultimate importance, the singular end which human beings ought to pursue.

   Antonym: summum malum

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:

     , New York Review of Books, 2001, p.65:

     Our summum bonum is commodity, and the goddess we adore Dea Moneta, Queen Money, to whom we daily offer sacrifice […]

The term is used particularly in, or in reference to, medieval philosophy.

• summum bonum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Summum Bonum in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

From summus (“superlative of superus”) + bonum (“a moral good”).

summum bonum n (genitive summī bonī); second declension

1. (medieval, philosophy) The highest good; an ultimate goal of human existence.

Second-declension adjective with a second-declension noun (neuter).