Ultimate

How to spell ultimate

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ultimate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ultimate mean?

1. adjectiveGreatest, best, or most extreme of its kind; or final and beyond which there is no further stage.

Ultimate in a sentence

• Winning the contract was the ultimate goal of the whole campaign.

• The resort promised the ultimate in comfort and privacy.

Where does ultimate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin ultimatus, the past participle of ultimare, meaning 'to come to an end' or 'to be final'. That verb was built on the adjective ultimus, which literally meant 'last', 'farthest', or 'most remote', itself a superlative formed from the root ulter, meaning 'beyond'. English adopted the word in the early 1600s, originally in the sense of 'last in a series' or 'final', before broadening to today's everyday meaning of 'greatest' or 'best possible'. The same Latin root sits inside the familiar word 'ultimatum', a final demand beyond which no further negotiation is offered, and inside 'penultimate', meaning the next to last. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle vowel: writers sometimes guess an 'o' or drop a letter, but the steady clue is the 'ultim-' core shared with 'ultimatum'.

How the word is built

• ultim- (from Latin ultimus: last, farthest)
• -ate (adjective suffix)