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

Electronic Theory.—The final outcome of these investigations was the hypothesis that Thomson’s corpuscles or particles composing the cathode discharge in a high vacuum tube must be looked upon as the ultimate constituent of what we call negative electricity; in other words, they are atoms of negative electricity, possessing, however, inertia, and these negative electrons are components at any rate of the chemical atom.

From Project Gutenberg

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

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 Project Gutenberg

The ultimate constituent of matter has been called the atom.

From Project Gutenberg

Physicists tell us that matter is made of electricity, that it is an electrical phenomenon, and that the ultimate constituent of matter is the electron.

From Project Gutenberg