different between improve vs ultimate

English

Alternative forms

• emprove (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprouwer, from Old French en- + prou (“profit”), from Vulgar Latin prode (“advantageous, profitable”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?p?u?v/
• Rhymes: -u?v

Verb

improve (third-person singular simple present improves, present participle improving, simple past and past participle improved)

1. (transitive) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
2. (intransitive) To become better.

   • “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

3. (obsolete) To disprove or make void; to refute.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

     Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another cannot improve.

4. (obsolete) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

     When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing.

5. (dated) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Reward of Honouring God (sermon)

     We shall especially honour God, by discharging faithfully those offices which God hath entrusted us with: by improving diligently those talents which God hath committed to us

   • a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved

   • the court has also an opportunity, which it seldom fails to improve.

   • 1715, Isaac Watts, Against Idleness and Mischief

     How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.

   • March 7, 1778, George Washington, letter

     True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.

Synonyms

• (to make something better): ameliorate, better, batten, enhance; See also Thesaurus:improve

Antonyms

• (to make something worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:aggravate
• (to become worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:worsen

Derived terms

• improvement
• improver
• improving

Translations

Further reading

• "improve" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 160.

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin ultim?tus (“furthest, last”), past participle of Latin ultim?, ultim?re (“to come to an end”), from ultimus (“last, final”). See ultra-.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??lt?m?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??lt?m?t/

Adjective

ultimate (not comparable)

1. Final; last in a series.
2. (of a syllable) Last in a word or other utterance.
3. Being the greatest possible; maximum; most extreme.
4. Being the most distant or extreme; farthest.
5. That will happen at some time; eventual.
6. Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final.
   • 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection

     those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we cannot rationally contradict

7. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental.

Synonyms

• (final): See Thesaurus:final
• (most extreme): utmost, uttermost

Antonyms

• (w.r.t. causes): initial, original
• (most extreme): original, derivative

Coordinate terms

• (adjectives denoting syllables): penultimate (last but one), antepenultimate (last but two), preantepenultimate (last but three), propreantepenultimate (last but four)

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

ultimate (countable and uncountable, plural ultimates)

1. The most basic or fundamental of a set of things
2. The final or most distant point; the conclusion
3. The greatest extremity; the maximum
4. (uncountable) The game of ultimate frisbee.

Translations

Verb

ultimate (third-person singular simple present ultimates, present participle ultimating, simple past and past participle ultimated)

1. (transitive, archaic) To finish; to complete.
   • 1869, The New-Jerusalem Magazine (volume 41, page 36)

     These measures have been carried forward with a zeal and unanimity that warrant the hope we entertain, of ultimating the plans in respect to our Temple, before the next meeting of the Maryland Association.

Further reading

• ultimate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ultimate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• mutilate

Finnish

Etymology

From English ultimate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ultim?te/, [?ult?i?m?t?e?]
• Rhymes: -?te
• Syllabification: ul?ti?ma?te

Noun

ultimate

1. ultimate frisbee (game)

Declension

Anagrams

• amuletit, amuletti, laitumet, leimattu, leimatut

Italian

Verb

ultimate

1. inflection of ultimare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative
   3. feminine plural past participle

Anagrams

• multiate, mutilate

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ul.ti?ma?.te/, [???t???mä?t??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ul.ti?ma.te/, [ul?t?i?m??t??]

Verb

ultim?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of ultim?