ultimate

«ultimate» in Mova's school dictionary: final; happening at the end of a long process — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (ultimate); noun (the ultimate — informal)

meaning for a pupil

1) Ultimate means final; happening at the end of a long process. tree →

2) Ultimate means the best, greatest or most extreme of its kind. tree →

3) Ultimate means basic or most important, as in «the ultimate cause». tree →

4) (informal) «The ultimate in» means the very best example of something. tree →

5) Ultimate (frisbee) is a team game with a flying disc. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life and adverts, «the ultimate pizza» or «the ultimate challenge» means the best or hardest one. In stories the ultimate goal is the final aim of the hero. In formal writing «ultimate responsibility» lies with the person at the top. Phrases: ultimate goal, the ultimate test, ultimate frisbee, the ultimate in comfort.

examples

• Our ultimate goal is to win the cup. tree →
• This is the ultimate chocolate cake! tree →
• Climbing Everest is the ultimate challenge. tree →
• The head teacher has ultimate responsibility for the school. tree →
• The ultimate cause of the fire was a faulty plug. tree →
• We played ultimate frisbee in PE. tree →
• This sofa is the ultimate in comfort. tree →

note

Adjective; the adverb «ultimately» means in the end. Do not confuse with «penultimate», which means second to last. It is not a number, but «the ultimate» item in a list means the last one.

In the corpora

• For soldiers, words like "the fallen" and "made the ultimate sacrifice" show respect for those who died in war.
• "Made the ultimate sacrifice" means died in war while serving one's country.
• "The ultimate penalty" means the death penalty: the law kills (executes) the criminal.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «ultimate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.