Thule

[thoo-lee for 1, 2; too-lee for 3]

noun

the ancient Greek and Latin name for an island or region variously identified as one of the Shetland Islands, Iceland, or Norway: supposed to be the most northerly region of the world.
ultima Thule.
a settlement in NW Greenland: site of U.S. air base.

Thule

[too-lee]

adjective

of or relating to an Eskimo culture flourishing from a.d. 500–1400, and extending throughout the Arctic from Greenland to Alaska.

Origin of Thule

named after Thule, Greenland

ultima Thule

[uhl-tuh-muh thoo-lee; Latin oo l-ti-mah too-le]

noun

(italics) Latin. the highest degree attainable.
the farthest point; the limit of any journey.
the point believed by the ancients to be farthest north.

Origin of ultima Thule

First recorded in 1655–65; literally, farthest Thule

Also called Thule.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for thule

Historical Examples of thule

But English will mean fame in ultima Thule; the isles of the sea, as the Bible says.
Dreamers of the Ghetto
I. Zangwill
While the period of Thule is 8.8 years, the period of Medusa is 3·1 years.
Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I
Herbert Spencer
I am glad to get somebody decent to talk to, or at, in this outlandish ultima Thule.
A Pair of Blue Eyes
Thomas Hardy
And he was followed by his brother Aordus and two hundred youths of the Eruli in Thule.
Procopius
Procopius
But Thule was quite as happy as if the hut had been a palace.
Fairy Book
Sophie May

British Dictionary definitions for thule

Thule

noun

Also called: ultima Thule a region believed by ancient geographers to be the northernmost land in the inhabited world: sometimes thought to have been Iceland, Norway, or one of the Shetland Islands
an Inuit settlement in NW Greenland: a Danish trading post, founded in 1910, and US air force base

ultima Thule

noun

another name for Thule
any distant or unknown region
a remote goal or aim

Word Origin for ultima Thule

Latin: the most distant Thule

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for thule

Thule

northernmost part of the world, Old English, from Latin, from Greek Thyle "land six days' sail north of Britain" (Polybius). Identity is speculative; it came to be used in a transferred sense of "extreme limits of travel."