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.
This could ultimately matter more to consumers’ pocketbooks than the action in oil itself, according to Tracy Shuchart, senior economist at NinjaTrader.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
Those doses caused heart muscle cells to contract more strongly, but that effect ultimately proved less helpful.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
But more importantly, the outdoors would help them, and ultimately me, learn to adapt to change.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
After finishing seventh the season before, an absence of European football saw them take 23 more points but they ultimately fell just two short behind champions Manchester City.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
The juiciest shorts—the bonds ultimately backed by the mortgages most likely to default—had several characteristics.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
