ultimate

comparative more ultimate · superlative most ultimate

1. not comparableFinal; last in a series.

   […] 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

   Synonyms: conclusive, last, terminal, extreme, final, conclusive, decisive, definitive · Antonyms: initial, original

2. not comparableLast in a word or other utterance.
3. Being the greatest possible; maximum; most extreme.

   the ultimate pleasure

   5 more examples

   the ultimate disappointment

   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

   "But if Berkeley be clear in conveying his doctrine, the matter of the exposition will be found not the less to press upon the powers of the firmest intellect. There are diligent students of modern metaphysical literature, who are little disciplined for the difficulties of disquisition into which a thorough examination of his views would lead them. His characteristic system depends little on mere classification, little on the more obvious results of observation. It rests on a basis of intense self-contemplation, which, to be prosecuted to any purpose, must be prosecuted with extreme perseverance. It questions the conscious being on points the most ultimate in his nature, — points which, though they be but facts of consciousness, we hesitate not to say, there are many minds wholly unable to make the objects of reflection."

   1839, Thomas Bartlett, Memoirs of the Life, Character and Writings of Joseph Butler, John W. Parker, page 264

   "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

   Synonyms: supreme, utmost, uttermost, extreme, ferocious, exquisite, intense, pluperfect · Antonyms: original, derivative

4. Being the most distant or extreme; farthest.

   Synonyms: outermost, outmost

5. not comparableThat will happen at some time; eventual.

   Synonyms: inevitable

6. not comparableLast 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 cannot rationally contradict

   1825, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character on the Several Grounds of Prudence, Morality, and Religion: […], London: […] Thomas Davison, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC

7. not comparableIncapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental.

   an ultimate constituent of matter

plural ultimates

1. countableuncountableThe most basic or fundamental of a set of things
2. countableuncountableThe final or most distant point; the conclusion
3. countableuncountableThe greatest extremity; the maximum
4. abbreviationellipsisuncountablehobbiesEllipsis of ultimate frisbee or ultimate disc.

present singular third person ultimates · participle present ultimating · participle past ultimated · past ultimated

1. archaictransitiveTo finish; to complete.

   These measures have been carried forward with a zeal and unanimity that warrant the hope we entertain, of ultimating the plans in respect to our Temple, before the next meeting of the Maryland Association.

   1869, The New-Jerusalem Magazine, volume 41, page 36