ultimatum

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a final demand stating terms that must be accepted, often with a threat of consequences if they are refused

   The government issued an ultimatum requiring the troops to withdraw by midnight.

Borrowed in the eighteenth century from New Latin ultimatum, 'a final proposition,' the neuter of Latin ultimatus, 'last or final,' from ultimus, 'farthest or last.' It first belonged to diplomatic negotiation before broadening to personal demands.

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