Dictionary Information: Definition Ultimate - Description Meaning Thesaurus

Ultimate (Ul"ti*mate) (?), a.
[LL. ultimatus last, extreme, fr. L. ultimare to come to an end, fr. ultimus the farthest, last, superl. from the same source as ulterior. See Ulterior, and cf. Ultimatum.]

1. Farthest; most remote in space or time; extreme; last; final. "My harbor, and my ultimate repose." Milton. "Many actions apt to procure fame are not conductive to this our ultimate happiness." Addison.
2. Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final. "Those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we can not rationally contradict." Coleridge.
3. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental; as, an ultimate constituent of matter.

-- Ultimate analysis (Chem.), organic analysis. See under Organic.
-- Ultimate belief. See under Belief.
-- Ultimate ratio (Math.), the limiting value of a ratio, or that toward which a series tends, and which it does not pass.

Synonyms -- Final; conclusive. See Final.

Ultimate (Ul"ti*mate) (?), v. t. & i.
[imp. & p. p. Ultimated (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Ultimating.]

1. To come or bring to an end; to eventuate; to end. [R.]
2. To come or bring into use or practice. [R.]