ne plus ultra

[ nee pluhs uhl-truh, ney; Latin ne ploos ool-trah ]

noun

1. the highest point; acme.
2. the most intense degree of a quality or state.

ne plus ultra

/ ˈneɪ ˈplʊs ˈʊltrɑː /

noun

1. the extreme or perfect point or state

Word History and Origins

Origin of ne plus ultra¹

1690–1700; < New Latin, Latin nē plūs ultrā (may you) not (go) further beyond (this point)

Word History and Origins

Origin of ne plus ultra¹

literally: not more beyond (that is, go no further), allegedly a warning to sailors inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar

Example Sentences

That particular shop, sold to Bendel a decade ago or so before, had been the ne plus ultra of American bookstores.

From The Daily Beast

Many of us occupy a world in which having your own hour on a cable channel is an all-consuming goal and the ne plus ultra.

From The Daily Beast

Having a bride end the show suggested that the wedding gown was the ne plus ultra.

From The Daily Beast

In the pantheon of self-destructive, shambolic, rock-star dandies, Johnny Thunders is the ne plus ultra.

From The Daily Beast

Lamb fills his case, and lights this the ne plus ultra of a soothing weed.

From Project Gutenberg

On his return he again doubled cape Good Hope, which had long been regarded as the ne plus ultra of navigation.

From Project Gutenberg

This is but a bare outline of a most excellently developed story, in which realism has been carried to a ne plus ultra.

From Project Gutenberg

Villars vaingloriously styled his lines "Marlborough's ne plus ultra," a subject on which he was abundantly jocular.

From Project Gutenberg

He thinks the bar-mess the most fashionable assemblage in Europe, and the jokes of "grand day" the ne plus ultra of wit.

From Project Gutenberg