# ultra

Pronunciation: US say "UL-truh" /ˈʌltɹə/; UK

## Noun

1. Short for ultramarathon: a footrace longer than the standard marathon distance.
   - Simple: A running race that is longer than a marathon.
   - _After a decade of road marathons, he signed up for a 100-mile ultra through the desert._
   - _Experienced runners often walk the steep climbs in their ultras to save their legs for the finish._
2. A person with extreme political views or methods, including an armed militant (a common use in South Asian news) and, historically, an ultraroyalist in early 19th-century France.
   - Simple: A person with extreme political views, sometimes an armed fighter for such a cause.
   - _A nationalist ultra was charged with inciting the riot that broke out after the rally._
   - _Security forces said four ultras surrendered with their weapons after a long standoff in the hills._
3. A member of an organized group of fiercely devoted soccer supporters known for choreographed displays, banners, chanting, and flares; some groups are also linked to political extremism or violence.
   - Simple: A very loyal soccer fan in an organized group that sings, waves banners, and lights flares at games.
   - _Police kept the visiting ultras behind a cordon as smoke from their flares drifted across the stadium._
   - _Becoming an ultra meant giving up weekends, learning the chants, and standing in the same section of the stands for every home game._
4. The code name used by British codebreakers in World War II for intelligence obtained by decrypting enemy communications.
   - Simple: The secret name British code breakers used in World War II for enemy messages they decoded.
   - _Commanders who received Ultra were forbidden to act on it in ways that might reveal where it came from._
   - _Decades after the war, the Ultra secret was finally made public, and the codebreakers could tell their families what they had done._

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Extreme to the point of being fanatical, going far beyond the norm and refusing to compromise.
- (noun) Short for ultra-prominent peak: a mountain summit whose topographic prominence is exceptionally great.

## Origin

Borrowed from Latin ultrā, which is usually traced to Latin ūls with the suffix -ter (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *-teros) and the ending -ā (Old Latin -ād), though some scholars think ūls was formed later from ultrā. The root goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ultra (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).