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Ultimate vs Total - What's the difference?

ultimate | total |

As adjectives the difference between ultimate and total

is that ultimate is final; last in a series while total is entire; relating to the whole of something.

As nouns the difference between ultimate and total

is that ultimate is the most basic or fundamental of a set of things while total is an amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.

As a verb total is

to add up; to calculate the sum of.

ultimate

English

Adjective

(wikipedia ultimate) (-)
  • Final; last in a series.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year= 1677 , isbn= , date= , author= (Robert Plot) , title= The natural history of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Toward the Natural History of England , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=EUqd_M1x40QC&pg=PA15 , page= 15 , chapter= Of the Heavens and Air , passage= }}
  • (of a syllable) Last in a word or other utterance.
  • Being the greatest possible; maximum; most extreme.
    • the ultimate pleasure
    the ultimate disappointment
  • *
    • Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
  • Being the most distant or extreme; farthest.
  • That will happen at some time; eventual.
  • Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final.
  • * Coleridge
    • those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we cannot rationally contradict
  • Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental.
    • an ultimate constituent of matter

    Antonyms

    * proximate

    Derived terms

    * antepenultimate * penultimate * ultimateness

    Coordinate terms

    * (syllable adjectives)

    Related terms

    * ulterior * ultimatum * ultra * ultra-

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The most basic or fundamental of a set of things
  • The final or most distant point; the conclusion
  • The greatest extremity; the maximum
  • (uncountable) The sport of ultimate frisbee.

    • External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    total

    English

    Alternative forms

    * totall (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.
    • A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.
  • (informal, mathematics) Sum.
    • The total of 4, 5 and 6 is 15.

    See also

    * addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) + (summand) = (sum, total) * subtraction: (minuend) ? (subtrahend) = (difference) * multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product) * division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

    Synonyms

    * (sum) sum

    Derived terms

    * subtotal

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Entire; relating to the whole of something.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.}}
  • ((used as an intensifier)) Complete; absolute.
  • :

    • Synonyms

    * (entire) entire, full, whole * (complete) absolute, complete, utter; see also

    Derived terms

    * total war

    Verb

  • To add up; to calculate the sum of.
    • When we totalled the takings, we always got a different figure.
  • To equal a total of; to amount to.
    • That totals seven times so far.
  • (transitive, US, slang) to demolish; to wreck completely. (from total loss)
    • Honey, I’m OK, but I’ve totaled the car.
  • To amount to; to add up to.
    • It totals nearly a pound.

    Synonyms

    * (add up) add up, sum * (demolish) demolish, trash, wreck

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----