ultimate

ultimate 1 *last, latest, final, terminal, concluding, eventual

2 Ultimate, absolute, categorical, despite great differences in implications, mean in common so fundamental as to represent the extreme limit of actual or possible knowledge.

Something ultimate represents the utmost limit attained or attainable either by analysis or by synthesis

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that lofty musing on the ultimate nature of things— Huxley

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the fugue was considered the ultimate vehicle for profound musical expression— Wier

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Something absolute (see also PURE 1; ABSOLUTE 2) has the character of being above all imperfection because it is not derived but original, not partial but complete, not subject to qualification because unlimited, and not dependent on anything else because self-sufficient. What is absolute has, as a rule, ideal existence and implies an opposite in actuality lacking the marks of absoluteness

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absolute reality as opposed to reality as known

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absolute, as opposed to human, justice

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truth ... is no absolute thing, but always relative— Galsworthy

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Luther . . . was led to set up the text of the Bible as a sort of visible absolute, a true and perfect touchstone in matters religious— Babbitt

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Something categorical (see also EXPLICIT) is so fundamental that human reason cannot go beyond it in a search for generality or universality and has therefore an affirmative, undeniable character; thus, the categorical concepts or the categories as they are often called, are the few concepts (as quantity, quality, and relation) to which all human knowledge can be reduced, inasmuch as no more general conceptions can be found to include them.