ultimavsultimoTell them apart

Quick tell: ultima is a noun, ultimo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ultima” is a noun and “ultimo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,623
“ultima” frequency rank
#49,117
“ultimo” frequency rank
88740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ultima ultimo
Definition The final syllable of a word. On the last day (of a specified month).

Where the eye mixes ultima and ultimo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
ultima
6 ch
ultimo

Visual trap between ultima and ultimo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ultima is /ˈʌltɪmə/ while ultimo is /ˈʌltɪməʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “ultima” becomes o in “ultimo”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ultima is recorded at frequency rank #39,623, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʌltɪmə/. ultimo is at rank #49,117, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈʌltɪməʊ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 88740, this pair ranks #5,974 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ultima vs ultimo

Shared letters: ilmtu. Private to "ultima": a. Private to "ultimo": o.

"ultima" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "ultimo" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ultimalutima · ulitma · ulltima · ultiam · ultimma · ultmia · ulttima · utlima
  • ultimolutimo · ulitmo · ulltimo · ultimmo · ultiom · ultmio · ulttimo · utlimo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ultima" and "ultimo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ultima" is a noun and "ultimo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ultima" vs "ultimo" - which ranks higher?
"ultima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,623 in our English list, against #49,117 for "ultimo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ultima" and "ultimo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ultima" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ultimo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,974 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ultima" and "ultimo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ultimo vs uptime". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #5,974 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list