basic; fundamental; representing a limit beyond which further progress, as in investigation or analysis, is impossible: the ultimate particle; ultimate principles.
5.
final; total: the ultimate consequences; the ultimate cost of a project.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Origin: 1645–55; < Late Latin ultimātus (past participle of ultimāre to come to an end), equivalent to Latin ultim(us) last, most distant (see ultima) + -ātus-ate1
1654, from L.L. ultimatus, pp. of ultimare "to be final, come to an end," from ultimus "last, final," superlative of *ulter "beyond" (see ultra). Ultimate Frisbee is attested from 1972.