paramount

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
paramount/ˈparəmaʊnt/

▶adjective

• 1 more important than anything else; supreme.

• 2 having supreme power.

– derivatives
paramountcy noun,
paramountly adverb.

– origin C16: from Anglo-Norman Fr. paramont, from OFr. par ‘by’ + amont ‘above’.