ultimate belief

2 definitions found

ultimate belief - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Ultimate \Ul"ti*mate\, a. [LL. ultimatus last, extreme, fr. L.
     ultimare to come to an end, fr. ultimus the farthest, last,
     superl. from the same source as ulterior. See Ulterior, and
     cf. Ultimatum.]
     1. Farthest; most remote in space or time; extreme; last;
        final.
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              My harbor, and my ultimate repose.    --Milton.
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              Many actions apt to procure fame are not conductive
              to this our ultimate happiness.       --Addison.
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     2. Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended
        toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last
        result; final.
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              Those ultimate truths and those universal laws of
              thought which we can not rationally contradict.
                                                    --Coleridge.
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     3. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further
        division or separation; constituent; elemental; as, an
        ultimate particle; an ultimate constituent of matter.
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     Ultimate analysis (Chem.), organic analysis. See under
        Organic.
  
     Ultimate belief. See under Belief.
  
     Ultimate ratio (Math.), the limiting value of a ratio, or
        that toward which a series tends, and which it does not
        pass.
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     Syn: Final; conclusive. See Final.
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  Belief \Be*lief"\, n. [OE. bileafe, bileve; cf. AS. gele['a]fa.
     See Believe.]
     1. Assent to a proposition or affirmation, or the acceptance
        of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without
        immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or
        testimony; partial or full assurance without positive
        knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction;
        confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our
        senses.
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              Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest
              suspicion to the fullest assurance.   --Reid.
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     2. (Theol.) A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith.
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              No man can attain [to] belief by the bare
              contemplation of heaven and earth.    --Hooker.
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     3. The thing believed; the object of belief.
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              Superstitious prophecies are not only the belief of
              fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men. --Bacon.
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     4. A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of
        any class of views; doctrine; creed.
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              In the heat of persecution to which Christian belief
              was subject upon its first promulgation. --Hooker.
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     Ultimate belief, a first principle incapable of proof; an
        intuitive truth; an intuition. --Sir W. Hamilton.
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     Syn: Credence; trust; reliance; assurance; opinion.
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