ultimate constituent

American  

noun

Grammar.

1. an element of a construction that cannot be further divided into grammatical constituents: the morphemes of an utterance are usually considered to be its ultimate constituents.

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ultimate constituent British  

noun

1. a constituent of something, such as a linguistic construction, that cannot be further subdivided in the terms of the analysis being undertaken Compare immediate constituent

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Example Sentences

Somewhere in the depths of space, he believed, helium, oxygen, silicon and iron were being formed from the ultimate constituent of all matter, the electron.

From Time Magazine Archive

That it modifies the functions or reactivity of the ultimate constituent groups we have seen from the study of the esters.

From Researches on Cellulose 1895-1900 by Cross, C. F.

A single word is seldom an integral element of speech; yet it may fairly be called the atom, the ultimate constituent of speech.

From The Principles of Aesthetics by Parker, Dewitt H.

Nothing escapes her sway in this present state, except Nature which, while seeming to change, never really changes her ultimate constituent elements, or her universal laws.

From Spenser by Church, R. W. (Richard William)

A Russian chemist, Mendeleeff, drew up a table of the elements in illustration of this, grouping them in families, which seemed to point to hydrogen as the common parent, or ultimate constituent, of each.

From The Story of Evolution by McCabe, Joseph