endgame vs ultimate

endgame

noun
  • The final stage of an extended process or course of events, especially with the implication of the imminent realization of a masterful strategy or plan. 

  • The final stage of a game of chess, when there are few pieces left. 

  • The final stage of any game. 

  • The gameplay available in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for players who have completed all of the preset challenges. 

  • The final stage of a game of bridge, when there are few cards left. 

adj
  • Having become canon by the end of the plot of a work of fiction or speculated to be intended to become such. 

ultimate

noun
  • The final or most distant point; the conclusion 

  • The greatest extremity; the maximum 

  • The most basic or fundamental of a set of things 

adj
  • Being the most distant or extreme; farthest. 

  • That will happen at some time; eventual. 

  • Final; last in a series. 

  • Last in a word or other utterance. 

  • Being the greatest possible; maximum; most extreme. 

  • Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final. 

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

How often have the words endgame and ultimate occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )