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

See Examples For:

ultimate constituent

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

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 Joseph McCabe

The ultimate constituent of matter has been called the atom.

From Carmen Ariza by Charles Francis Stocking

Biophore: an ultimate constituent of germ plasm or hereditary substance.

From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by John. B. Smith

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 Dewitt H. Parker

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