Word Direct Answers

What does "ultimate" mean?

Ultimate: 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.

Additional senses

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

Sources