'Ultimate ratio' definitions:
Definition of 'Ultimate ratio'
From: GCIDE
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- My harbor, and my ultimate repose. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- Many actions apt to procure fame are not conductive to this our ultimate happiness. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final. [1913 Webster]
- Those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we can not rationally contradict. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
- 3. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental; as, an ultimate particle; an ultimate constituent of matter. [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- Syn: Final; conclusive. See Final. [1913 Webster]