last vs ultimate

last

adj
  • Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind. 

  • Being the only one remaining of its class. 

  • Farthest of all from a given quality, character, or condition; most unlikely, or least preferable. 

  • Supreme; highest in degree; utmost. 

  • Lowest in rank or degree. 

  • Most recent, latest, last so far. 

det
  • The (one) immediately before the present. 

  • Closest in the past, or closest but one if the closest was very recent; of days, sometimes thought to specifically refer to the instance closest to seven days (one week) ago, or the most recent instance before seven days (one week) ago. 

adv
  • Most recently. 

  • after everything else; finally 

verb
  • To hold out, continue undefeated or entire. 

  • To shape with a last; to fasten or fit to a last; to place smoothly on a last. 

  • To endure, continue over time. 

noun
  • A tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes. 

  • A load of some commodity with reference to its weight and commercial value. 

ultimate

adj
  • Final; last in a series. 

  • Being the most distant or extreme; farthest. 

  • That will happen at some time; eventual. 

  • 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. 

noun
  • The greatest extremity; the maximum 

  • The most basic or fundamental of a set of things 

  • The final or most distant point; the conclusion 

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