ultima thule

ultima thule is the alternative letter-case form of ultima Thule.

Noun (1) capitalized: Ultima Thule

Ultima Thule (plural Ultimae Thules or Ultima Thules)

Alternative letter-case form of ultima Thule (“a place beyond the known world; highest achievement”).
- […]the metropolis of our far west, and about as neat and picturesque an assize town as ever was, with its fine old castle overhanging the river, and, like many of these Ultimæ Thules of civilisation, having several good shops and handsome churches !1875, “North-West Pembrokeshire”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, page 288

Proper noun capitalized: Ultima Thule

Ultima Thule

(informal) Synonym of Arrokoth (“trans-Neptunian object (486958) 2014 MU69”).
- With substantial public input, the team has chosen “Ultima Thule” (pronounced ultima thoo-lee”) for the Kuiper Belt object the New Horizons spacecraft will explore on Jan. 1, 2019.2018 March 13, “New Horizons Chooses Nickname for ‘Ultimate’ Flyby Target”, in NASA
- Since NASA’s New Horizons mission left its rendezvous with the dwarf planet Pluto in late 2015, it has been preparing for another close encounter, with cold classical Kuiper belt object (CCKBO) 2014 MU₆₉, also known as Ultima Thule2018 September 24, Paul Wood, “Preparing to meet Ultima Thule”, in Nature Astronomy
Synonyms:

Arrokoth, minor planet 486958

Noun (2) capitalized: ultima Thule

ultima Thule (plural ultima Thules)

A place beyond the borders of the known world.
- Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle! / Here in thy harbors for a while / We lower our sails; a while we rest / From the unending, endless quest.1880, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Dedication to G. W. G.”, in Ultima Thule
- It is impossible to define a reason for the Gulf Settlements attaining this unenviable notoriety, unless it is owing to the remoteness of their locality, and the kind of Ultima Thule that part of Australia seems to be.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 306
Highest achievement.

Synonyms of ultima thule

Arrokoth
minor planet 486958

Forms of ultima thule

plural	ultimae thules
plural	ultima thules
plural	Ultimae Thules
plural	Ultima Thules
plural	ultima Thules
alternative form	ultima thule
alternative form	Ultima Thule

Origin of ultima thule

Capitalization of ultima Thule, from Latin ultima (“final; furthest”) + Thule (“northernmost inhabited island”).

From ultima Thule (“furthest place; a place beyond the known world”). The object was first observed in 2014 and announced later that year as a potential target for NASA's New Horizons probe. In March 2018, after inviting suggestions from the public, NASA selected Ultima Thule as its nickname. Once it was determined that the body was a bilobate contact binary, the New Horizons team began calling the larger lobe Ultima and the smaller Thule.

From Latin ultima Thūlē, nominative feminine singular of ultimus (“furthest”) + Thule, from mediaeval geography; originally from the Ancient Greek Θούλη (Thoúlē), a (possibly mythical) island to the north of Britain.

Words formed from ultima thule

Ultima
Thule

Questions about ultima thule

What does ultima thule mean?: Ultima thule means synonym of Arrokoth (“trans-Neptunian object (486958) 2014 MU69”).
What is ultima thule the alternative letter-case form of?: Ultima thule is the alternative letter-case form of ultima Thule.
What part of speech is ultima thule?: Ultima thule can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of ultima thule?: The plural of ultima thule is ultimae thules.

Words near ultima thule in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: ultima thule (page history and authors); Ultima Thule (page history and authors); ultima Thule (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “ultima thule.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ultima_thule. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.