ultimately
Britishadverb
Explanation
Ultimately means "at the very end of the process." Your strategy of robbing banks with a water gun worked a few times, but ultimately it was unsuccessful. Use ultimately when you want to stress that there are many different elements of something, but in the end there's one clear conclusion. The city parks department might listen to everyone's ideas for what to do with that empty lot, but ultimately they'll do whatever they think will serve the city best. Ultimately comes from the Latin ultimāre, meaning, lying at the very end.
Vocabulary lists containing ultimately
Tuesdays with Morrie
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Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
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Obama, on the 50th anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday'
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Oil prices are pulling back after Wednesday's sharp rally, indicating that markets still expect diplomacy to ultimately prevail and that any disruption to global energy supplies is likely to be limited."
From Barron's • Jul. 10, 2026
“Living among wolves for cattle is a chronically stressful experience, and that could ultimately have production-related impacts in both the short and the long term.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 9, 2026
Key questions for Focused and Proxima are how much Germany will ultimately spend—and how long it will continue supporting rival technologies.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 9, 2026
Even beyond the supermarket, it was common to use checks at malls, big-box stores or gas stations until the early 2000s, when they were ultimately upstaged by credit and debit cards.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 9, 2026
Bobby ultimately sued Reshevsky and the American Chess Foundation, seeking a court order to resume the match and asking to have Reshevsky banned from tournament play until the matter was settled.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
