Meaning of ultimate in English

ultimate

adjective [ before noun ]

/ˈʌl.tɪ.mət/ us

/ˈʌl.tə.mət/

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most extreme or important because either the original or final, or the best or worst:

Of course the ultimate responsibility for the present conflict without doubt lies with the aggressor.

My manager will make the ultimate decision about who to employ.

Infidelity is the ultimate betrayal.

the ultimate luxury cruiser

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He announced what he called 'the ultimate test of mind over matter' - a woman walking over hot coals.
This is his centennial year and he's been granted the ultimate accolade - his face on a set of three postage stamps.
If our soldiers have to pay the ultimate price for defending their country, then so be it.
Among young people, this brand of designer clothing is the ultimate status symbol.
Hairy backs are for me the ultimate turn-off.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Final and finally

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Very important or urgent

ultimate

noun

/ˈʌl.tɪ.mət/ us

/ˈʌl.tə.mət/

the ultimate in something

the best or most extreme example of something:

The hotel is described as "the ultimate in luxury".

ultimate noun (GAME)

[ U ]

another word for Ultimate Frisbee

(Definition of ultimate from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

ultimate | American Dictionary

ultimate

adjective [ not gradable ]

/ˈʌl·tə·mət/

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most important, highest, last, or final:

Your ultimate goal is to play the game as well as you can.

Ultimate also means the best, most, or greatest of its kind:

Some people believe that he is the ultimate painter of this century.

ultimate

noun [ U ] us

/ˈʌl·tə·mət/

Winning was the ultimate, because our team had never won before.

(Definition of ultimate from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

ultimate | Business English

ultimate

adjective

/ˈʌltɪmət/ us

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last in a series:

The CEO is responsible for making the ultimate decision.

We are stopping off in Brussels and Cairo, but our ultimate destination is Chennai.

having more importance or more influence over what happens than all others:

ultimate goal/aim Only one in 100 workers will achieve the ultimate goal and retire on two-thirds of final salary.

The manager has ultimate responsibility for all investment advisory services.

The corporate HQ in the UK has ultimate authority over all our overseas operations.

(Definition of ultimate from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of ultimate

ultimate

The two principles—leaving old people in their own homes and securing the finance—are the two basic ultimates which have to be watched, and finance is the most difficult of all.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

I speak about the ultimates.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

Coercive political action often appears the ultimate antithesis of the politics of liberalism.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The ultimate effects of initial cost internalization on economic aggregates would have to be modelled according to prevailing price elasticities and technological (production) structures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The ultimate achievement of cognitive archaeology would be to provide descriptions of the cognitive life-world of human antecedents at many points in evolution.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In fact, gene sequencing is now recommended as the ultimate method of certification of polio eradication [11].

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Every historical fact must finally be assigned its place in these great culture systems and acquire its ultimate significance in relation to one of them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Generally speaking, the biggest measure in the fuzzy set is the ultimate decision.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this instance, motivation serves the function of a portmanteau concept that hinders further insight into the dynamics of contraceptive failures and their ultimate control.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What are the ultimate social and political ideals that determine the way in which scientists work toward common goals?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There may then be said to be two subjects of legal sovereignty - one immediate and one ultimate.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Africans had no need for such external sources of inspiration ; in their ultimate state of self-realization, they would be naturally socialist and democratic.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Other authors departed from this concern over physical indicators, however, and questioned the ultimate relevance of race.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Four types of "healing connections" involving a sense of bonding to self, others, the phenomenal world, and ultimate meaning, respectively, were identified.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The pursuit of money not only becomes an end in itself, it often becomes the ultimate end of our intentions and actions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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