ultimate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the finest or most superior quality of its kind
    • the ultimate in luxury
  2. adjective furthest or highest in degree or order; utmost or extreme
    • the ultimate achievement
    • the ultimate question
    • man's ultimate destiny
    • the ultimate insult
    • one's ultimate goal in life
  3. adjective satellite being the last or concluding element of a series
    • the ultimate sonata of that opus
    • a distinction between the verb and noun senses of `conflict' is that in the verb the stress is on the ultimate (or last) syllable

WordNet

Ul"ti*mate adjective
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  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. Syn. -- Final; conclusive. See Final.
Ul"ti*mate transitive verb & intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Ultimated ; present participle & verbal noun Ultimating
Definitions
  1. To come or bring to an end; to eventuate; to end. R.
  2. To come or bring into use or practice. R.

Webster 1913