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Proverbial vs Ultimate - What's the difference?

proverbial | ultimate |

As adjectives the difference between proverbial and ultimate

is that proverbial is of, resembling, or expressed as a proverb, , fable, or fairy tale while ultimate is final; last in a series.

As nouns the difference between proverbial and ultimate

is that proverbial is (euphemistic) used to replace a word that might be considered unacceptable in a particular situation, when using a well-known phrase while ultimate is the most basic or fundamental of a set of things.

proverbial

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of, resembling, or expressed as a proverb, , fable, or fairy tale.
  • * 1947 , ( transcript):
  • Doris: You're making me feel like the proverbial stepmother.
  • Widely known; famous; stereotypical.
  • I grew up in a prefab house on Main Street in 1950s suburbia, the second and last child of a proverbial nuclear family.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (euphemistic) Used to replace a word that might be considered unacceptable in a particular situation, when using a well-known phrase.
  • I think we should be prepared in case the proverbial hits the fan.
  • (euphemistic) The groin or the testicles.
  • 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)

    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.
  • Anagrams

    * ----