Ultimate

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈʌltɪmɪt/
• US IPA: /ˈʌltÉ™mɪt/

Origin

From Medieval Latin ultimatus ("furthest, last"), past participle of Latin ultimare ("to come to an end"), from ultimus ("last, final"); see ultra-.

Adjective

1. Final; last in a series.
• 1677, , Robert Plot, The natural history of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Toward the Natural History of England Chapter Of the Heavens and Air, ... they sounds of an echo next strike the ultimate secondary object, then the penultimate and antepenultimate; ...
2. (of a syllable) Last in a word or other utterance.
3. Being the greatest possible; maximum; most extreme.the ultimate pleasurethe ultimate disappointment
• Schuster Hepaticae V|viiHepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
4. Being the most distant or extreme; farthest.
5. That will happen at some time; eventual.
6. Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final.
• Coleridgethose ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we cannot rationally contradict
7. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental.an ultimate constituent of matter

Antonyms

• (w.r.t. causes) proximate

Derived terms

• antepenultimate
• penultimate
• ultimateness

Coordinate terms

Related terms

• ulterior
• ultimatum
• ultra
• ultra-

Full definition of ultimate

Noun

1. The most basic or fundamental of a set of things
2. The final or most distant point; the conclusion
3. The greatest extremity; the maximum
4. (uncountable) The sport of ultimate frisbee.

Anagrams

• mutilate