Thus far all of my Substack posts have featured Winning Words that lived up to their name by answering vocabulary in context questions. ULTIMATELY is an important exception. Although it is not the answer to a vocabulary in context question, ULTIMATELY has become a frequent answer for challenging transition questions.
Transition words like ULTIMATELY are used to smoothly link sentences and paragraphs together so that there are no abrupt jumps or breaks between ideas. They signal relationships between ideas, showing how one thought relates to another.
ULTIMATELY indicates a final result or conclusion reached after a process or series of events. In one recent passage, Chinese archaeologists used a sequence of complex dating procedures to study the chronology of ancient ocher artifacts. They ULTIMATELY determined that the artifacts were between 39,000 and 41,000 years old.
This is not the only challenging use of ULTIMATELY. A particularly difficult passage asks students to connect the most logical way to reconcile how an author connects two very different ideas. In the first part of the passage, the author marvels at a single goldfinch’s delicate fins. But she recoils in shock when she learns that a horde of goldfinch will eat their own eggs. The author ULTIMATELY realizes that nature’s intricacy and harshness are inextricably linked in the web of life.
It is important to keep in mind that ULTIMATELY describes a conclusion reached after a series of events. HENCE, SIMILARLY, and TO THAT END are tempting but incorrect transitions for the examples about ancient ocher artifacts and modern goldfinch.
ULTIMATELY – a final result or conclusion reached after a process or series of events