ultimate

Noun · Adjective

WordNet 3.0

Noun (1)

the finest or most superior quality of its kind“the ultimate in luxury”

Adjective (2)

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”
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”

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

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. [1913 Webster]

My harbor, and my ultimate repose.— Milton.[1913 Webster]

Many actions apt to procure fame are not conductive to this our ultimate happiness.— Addison.[1913 Webster]

2.Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final. [1913 Webster]

Those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we can not rationally contradict.— Coleridge.[1913 Webster]

3.Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental; as, an ultimate particle; an ultimate constituent of matter. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

Syn: Final; conclusive. See Final. [1913 Webster]

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

1.To come or bring to an end or issue; to eventuate; to end. [R.] [1913 Webster]

2.To come or bring into use or practice. [R.] [1913 Webster]

Analysis \A*nal"y*sis\, n.; pl. Analyses. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to unloose, to dissolve, to resolve into its elements; ? up + ? to loose. See Loose.]

1.A resolution of anything, whether an object of the senses or of the intellect, into its constituent or original elements; an examination of the component parts of a subject, each separately, as the words which compose a sentence, the tones of a tune, or the simple propositions which enter into an argument. It is opposed to synthesis. [1913 Webster]

2.(Chem.) The separation of a compound substance, by chemical processes, into its constituents, with a view to ascertain either (a) what elements it contains, or (b) how much of each element is present. The former is called qualitative, and the latter quantitative analysis. [1913 Webster]

3.(Logic) The tracing of things to their source, and the resolving of knowledge into its original principles. [1913 Webster]

4.(Math.) The resolving of problems by reducing the conditions that are in them to equations. [1913 Webster]

5. (a) A syllabus, or table of the principal heads of a discourse, disposed in their natural order. (b) A brief, methodical illustration of the principles of a science. In this sense it is nearly synonymous with synopsis. [1913 Webster]

6.(Nat. Hist.) The process of ascertaining the name of a species, or its place in a system of classification, by means of an analytical table or key. [1913 Webster]

Ultimate, Proximate, Qualitative, Quantitative, and Volumetric analysis. (Chem.) See under Ultimate, Proximate, Qualitative, etc. [1913 Webster]