from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Ultimate \Ul"ti*mate\, a. [LL. ultimatus last, extreme, fr. L.
ultimare to come to an end, fr. ultimus the farthest, last,
superl. from the same source as ulterior. See {Ulterior}, and
cf. {Ultimatum}.]
1. Farthest; most remote in space or time; extreme; last;
final.
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My harbor, and my ultimate repose. --Milton.
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Many actions apt to procure fame are not conductive
to this our ultimate happiness. --Addison.
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2. Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended
toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last
result; final.
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Those ultimate truths and those universal laws of
thought which we can not rationally contradict.
--Coleridge.
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3. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further
division or separation; constituent; elemental; as, an
ultimate particle; an ultimate constituent of matter.
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{Ultimate analysis} (Chem.), organic analysis. See under
{Organic}.
{Ultimate belief}. See under {Belief}.
{Ultimate ratio} (Math.), the limiting value of a ratio, or
that toward which a series tends, and which it does not
pass.
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Syn: Final; conclusive. See {Final}.
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from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Belief \Be*lief"\, n. [OE. bileafe, bileve; cf. AS. gele['a]fa.
See {Believe}.]
1. Assent to a proposition or affirmation, or the acceptance
of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without
immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or
testimony; partial or full assurance without positive
knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction;
confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our
senses.
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Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest
suspicion to the fullest assurance. --Reid.
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2. (Theol.) A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith.
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No man can attain [to] belief by the bare
contemplation of heaven and earth. --Hooker.
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3. The thing believed; the object of belief.
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Superstitious prophecies are not only the belief of
fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men. --Bacon.
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4. A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of
any class of views; doctrine; creed.
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In the heat of persecution to which Christian belief
was subject upon its first promulgation. --Hooker.
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{Ultimate belief}, a first principle incapable of proof; an
intuitive truth; an intuition. --Sir W. Hamilton.
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Syn: Credence; trust; reliance; assurance; opinion.
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