ultimate

CEFRB1

/ˈʌltɪmət/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
adjective
Being the final, greatest, or most important of its kind.
02
adjective
Extra detail
Being the greatest possible; maximum; most extreme.

Examples

Our ultimate goal is to establish world peace.
What is the ultimate purpose of education?

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

/-ɪt/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

Last in a word or other utterance.
Final; last in a series.
Being the most distant or extreme; farthest.

More examples

In context

an ultimate constituent of matter
the ultimate disappointment
the ultimate pleasure

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

The blank goal of the project was to achieve world peace and harmony.

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Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

[…] they [the sounds of an echo] next strike the ultimate secondary object, then the penultimate and antepenultimate; […]
1677, Robert Plot, “Of the Heavens and Air”, in The natural history of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Toward the Natural History of England, page 15
Not that we consider this as the most desirable channel in which these affections should be made to flow. The good that is done in this way, is by no means in proportion to the good that is intended. Injudicious charity has probably been productive of far more ultimate evil, than the coldest and most indiscriminating selfishness.
1813, Henry Ware, Noah Worcester, The Christian Disciple and Theological Review, Boston, Cummings and Hilliard, pages 227-228
"From the foregoing observations we deduce the interesting fact that acetic acid, hitherto known only as a product of the oxidation of organic materials, can be built up by almost direct synthesis from its elements. Sulphide of carbon, chloride of carbon, and chlorine, are the agents which, along with water, accomplish the transformation of carbon into acetic acid. If we could only transform acetic acid into alcohol, and out of the latier could obtain sugar and starch, then we should be enabled to build up these common vegetable principles, by the so-called artificial method, from their most ultimate elements."
1843, Artizan Club (London, England), The Artizan, Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, page 106
Dr. Bucknill declares that the growth and renovation of nerve-cells in the brain "are the most ultimate conditions of mind with which we are accquainted"; but instead of inferring from this that we know very little indeed about the mind, he concludes that thought, recollection, and reason are products of "the activity of the vesicular neurine of the brain."
1867, The North American Review, O. Everett, page 634
Hepaticology, 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.
1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii

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Origin

adjective

* From Medieval Latin ultimātus (“furthest, last”), perfect passive participle of ultimō (“to come to an end”) (see -ate (1,2 and 3)), from ultimus (“last, final”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). See ultra-. * (ultimate frisbee): The sport was renamed to avoid the use of the Frisbee trademark.

Deep Dive

adjective

More examples

Related

Quick test

The blank— goal of the project was to achieve world peace and harmony.

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Origin

adjective

The blank goal of the project was to achieve world peace and harmony.