To Carry To Extremes
To Master
transitive verb, ichidan verb
Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means extreme. The verb vocab version isn't "to extreme" because that wouldn't make sense. Instead, you carry it to extremes, making this word to carry to extremes, or to master.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You didn't learn that reading with this kanji, so here's a mnemonic to help you:
When you go to carry to extremes, you're going too far, so there has to be a key word (きわ) that you say to make the other person stop. "CACAO! CACAO!"
日本語を極めるのは、生易しい事ではない。
It is no easy task to master the Japanese language.
法律関係の職に就いて法律を極めることが夢でしたが、それよりも仕事で多忙を極めることになりました。
My dream was to enter the legal profession and master the law, but I've just become extremely busy with work.